Reading the Son of Neptune
by inspiremyworld95
Summary: Hi! This is my take on all the campers of Camp Half Blood reading The Son of Neptune while it happens. I'm trying my best to follow the timeline in the story. Read and Review please! enjoy! T just to be sure.
1. Prolouge

**A/N-** **Hi guys! I wanted to try this out! Tell me how it is! Thanks!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own ****PJO**** or ****HoO****, but I **_**so**_** wish I did!**

Prolouge

Annabeth was _seriously_ anxious. Only two more days until the summer solstice. She was a nervous wreck.

She was poking the food on her plate in the Mess Hall at dinner when a bright light flashed and a package appeared on Chrion's table. He looked at the package curiously then picked up the attatched letter. When he read it his eyes went wide. He stood up and stomped his hoof to get the attention of all the campers.

"Attention campers! After dinner tonight we will all proceed to the campfire to read a book sent to us from Apollo himself." He turned to look pointedly at Annabeth and at Jason a couple of tables away. "I'm sure you will want to hear this, considering the note says it is about the adventures of our missing hero, Percy Jackson."

Annabeth's jaw dropped in shock. Her siblings stared, waiting for a reaction, but that was all they got.

Thoughts were running through her head, wildly.

_Is it really about Percy?_

_Is he okay? Where is he?_

_Oh, gods I miss him. _

_When I see him, Thailia wants me to punch him, but I'm going to tell him I love him. _

She can't believe what she's hearing. It's lucky the hunters of Artemis were visiting. Thailia had to help Annabeth, who was floating in a dream-like state, to the campfire and sat them down on a log bench close to the yellow-magenta flames.

"Alright," said Chiron in a voice as clear as bell ringing through the silence of the campers. "Who will read first?"

"I will!" said Thailia from beside her. She went to take the book from Chiron and returned.

**Percy I **she began.


	2. Percy I

**A/N-Hey! Tell me what you think. I'm not sure if I spelled Thailia right though. Huh? Read and Review Thanks! Enjoy!**

**Percy I**

**The snake-haired ladies were starting to annoy Percy.**

"What?" Thailia paused for a second.

**They should have died three days ago when he dropped a crate of bowling balls on them at the Napa Bargain Mart. They should have died two days ago when he ran over them with a police car in Martinez. They definitely should have died this morning when he** **cut off their heads in Tilden Park.**

**No matter how many times Percy killed them and watched them crumble to powder, they just kept re-forming like large evil dust bunnies. He couldn't even seem to outrun them.**

"NO!" Annabeth said, sounding like she might cry.

Thailia put an arm around her closest friend, comfortingly.

**He reached the top of the hill and caught his breath. How long since he'd last killed them? Maybe two hours. They never seemed to stay dead longer than that.**

"Uh oh," Leo said.

**The past few days, he'd hardly slept. He'd eaten whatever he could scrounge—vending machine Gummi Bears, stale bagels, even a Jack in the Crack burrito, which was a new personal low. His clothes were torn, burned, and splattered with monster slime.**

Annabeth and Thailia looked troubled at hearing how much Percy went through. This was not good. Chiron kept his expression hard.

**He'd only survived this long because the two snake-haired ladies—gorgons, they called themselves—couldn't seem to kill him either. Their claws didn't cut his skin. Their teeth broke whenever they tried to bite him. But Percy couldn't keep going much longer. Soon he'd collapse from exhaustion, and then—as hard as he was to kill, he was pretty sure the gorgons would find a way.**

**Where to run?**

**He scanned his surroundings. Under different circumstances, he might've enjoyed the view. To his left, golden hills rolled inland, dotted with lakes, woods, and a few herds of cows. To his right, the flatlands of Berkeley and Oakland marched west—a vast checkerboard of neighborhoods, with several million people who probably did not want their morning interrupted by two monsters and a filthy demigod.**

**Farther west, San Francisco Bay glittered under a silvery haze. Past that, a wall of fog had swallowed most of San Francisco, leaving just the tops of skyscrapers and the towers of the Golden Gate Bridge.**

**A vague sadness weighed on Percy's chest. Something told him he'd been to San Francisco before. The city had some connection to Annabeth—**

"What?" Annabeth looked up shocked.

Everyone else was staring at her with open mouths.

**the only person he could remember from his past.**

Annabeth gasped and pulled in a shallow breath.

**His memory of her was frustratingly dim. The wolf had promised he would see her again and regain his memory—if he succeeded in his journey.**

"Comeon," Annabeth said in a quick voice.

**Should he try to cross the bay?**

**It was tempting. He could feel the power of the ocean just over the horizon. Water always revived him. Salt water was the best. He'd discovered that two days ago when he had strangled a sea monster in the Carquinez Strait. If he could reach the bay, he might be able to make a last stand. Maybe he could even drown the gorgons. But the shore was at least two miles away. He'd have to cross an entire city.**

"He can't do that," Jason said, shaking his head. "The camp should be closer."

**He hesitated for another reason. The wolf Lupa had taught him to sharpen his senses—to trust the instincts that had been guiding him south. His homing radar was tingling like crazy now. The end of his journey was close—almost right under his feet. But how could that be? There was nothing on the hilltop.**

"Didn't he just say it was under his feet?" Leo asked confused.

"Yes, Leo," Piper said with patience. "Now could you be quiet? I want to hear." There was a bit of charmspeak in her voice

**The wind changed. Percy caught the sour scent of reptile. A hundred yards down the slope, something rustled through the woods—snapping branches, crunching leaves, hissing.**

**Gorgons.**

"Not Medusa's sisters!" Annabeth was worrying.

**For the millionth time, Percy wished their noses weren't so good. They had always said they could smell him because he was a demigod—the half-blood son of some old Roman god. Percy had tried rolling in mud, splashing through creeks, even keeping air-freshener sticks in his pockets so he'd have that new car smell; but apparently demigod stink was hard to mask.**

"Yeah you do smell, "Grover said, smirking.

"I don't get how that works," Piper told him curiously. "What exactly do we smell like to you?"

"Well you each smell different, according to your godly parent," He explained. "For Piper, it's perfume-"

"What kind of perfume?" Leo put in, wiggling his eyebrows at Jason, guesturing to Piper behind her back.

"I don't know. I'm not Channel," he waved it off. "Anyway for Thailia and Jason, it's ozone; for you it's smoke and ashes; for Percy, it's the ocean; and for Annabeth, it's like the pages of an old library book."

The Stolls snickered at Annabeth being called an _old _book. She glared at them. "Hey, I bet you two are much worse," she retorted.

They shut up.

A bunch of campers started asking Grover what they smelled like.

"HEY!" Thailia yelled to get there attention. "QUIET! Or I'll burn the book!"

Annabeth shook her head, desperately, wanting to her about Percy.

The campers were all silent suddenly, focused on Thailia.

"Good," she said. "Now stay quiet."

Chrion smiled fondly at her reasoning.

**He scrambled to the west side of the summit. It was too steep to descend. The slope plummeted eighty feet, straight to the roof of an apartment complex built into the side of the hill. Fifty feet below that, a highway emerged from the base of the hill and wound its way toward Berkeley. Great. No other way off the hill. He'd managed to get himself cornered.**

"No," Annabeth moaned.

**He stared at the stream of cars flowing west toward San Francisco and wished he were in one of them.**

"Don't we all," all the campers who have been on quests or fought in the Titan war said dryly.

**Then he realized the highway must cut through the hill. There must be a tunnel . . . right under his feet. His internal radar went nuts. He was in the right place, just too high up. He had to check out that tunnel. He needed a way down to the highway—fast.**

"Go!" Thailia screamed, interrupting herself. "Sorry she said to Chiron, who nodded.

**He slung off his backpack. He'd managed to grab a lot of supplies at the Napa Bargain Mart: a portable GPS, duct tape, lighter, superglue, water bottle, camping roll, a comfy panda pillow pet (as seen on TV), and a Swiss army knife—pretty much every tool a modern demigod could want. `**

**But he had nothing that would serve as a parachute or a sled.**

"So he's going to slide down the hill?" Chris asked.

"I think so," Piper replied. "I'm not sure how he'll do itthough."

**That left him two options: jump eighty feet to his death, or stand and fight. Both options sounded pretty bad.**

"Just be safe,"Annabeth whispered pleadingly. "Come home for me, Percy."

**He cursed and pulled his pen from his pocket.**

"What's a pen going to do?" Leo asked.

"You'd be surprised how many times he's saved us with that pen," Thailia told him while Annabeth snickered.

**The pen didn't look like much, just a regular cheap ballpoint, but when Percy uncapped it, it grew into a glowing bronze sword. The blade balanced perfectly. The leather grip fit his hand like it had been custom designed for him. Etched along the guard was an Ancient Greek word Percy somehow understood: Anaklusmos—Riptide.**

"That's awesome," Jason said. "Hidden in plain sight."

"Sort of like you glaius, Jason," Piper remarked, thinking of how similar, yet different the two leaders were.

**He'd woken up with this sword his first night at the Wolf House—two months ago? More? He'd lost track. He'd found himself in the courtyard of a burned-out mansion in the middle of the woods, wearing shorts, an orange T-shirt, and a leather necklace with a bunch of strange clay beads. Riptide had been in his hand, but Percy had had no idea who he was or how he'd gotten there. He'd been barefoot, freezing, and confused. And then the wolves came. . . .**

Annabeth 's breath was shallow.

**Right next to him, a familiar voice jolted him back to the present: "There you are!"**

**Percy stumbled away from the gorgon, almost falling off the edge of the hill. It was the smiley one—Beano.**

"Beano?" Jason asked confused. "I mean- form all the mythology I learned, there's no Beano mentioned."

**Okay, her name wasn't really Beano. As near as Percy could figure, he was dyslexic, because words got twisted around when he tried to read. The first time he'd seen the gorgon, posing as a Bargain Mart greeter with a big green button that read: welcome! My name is Stheno; he'd thought it said beano.**

"Oh, "Jason replied, eyebrows pulling together.

Annabeth flickered a smile. "Seaweed Brain," she said softly.

Thailia peeked at her and smiled.

**She was still wearing her green Bargain Mart employee vest over a flower-print dress. If you just looked at her body, you might think she was somebody's dumpy old grandmother—until you looked down and realized she had rooster feet. Or you looked up and saw bronze boar tusks sticking out of the corners of her mouth. Her eyes glowed red, and her hair was a writhing nest of bright green snakes.**

**The most horrible thing about her? She was still holding her big silver platter of free samples: Crispy Cheese 'n' Wieners. Her platter was all dented from all the times Percy killed her, but those little samples looked perfectly fine. Stheno just kept toting them across California so she could offer Percy a snack before she killed him. Percy didn't know why she kept doing that, but if he ever needed a suit of armor, he was going to make it out of Crispy Cheese 'n' Wieners. That stuff was indestructible.**

Annabeth cracked a smile.

Leo said to his siblings, "We should so try to do that. Af-After I finish the ship," he finished under Annabeth's warning glare.

**"Try one?" Stheno offered. Percy fended her off with his sword. "Where's your sister?" "Oh, put the sword away," Stheno chided. "You know by now that even Celestial bronze can't kill us for long. Have a Cheese 'n' Wiener! They're on sale this week, and I'd hate to kill you on an empty stomach."**

**"Stheno!" The second gorgon appeared on Percy's right so fast, he didn't have time to react. Fortunately she was too busy glaring at her sister to pay him much attention. "I told you to sneak up on him and kill him!"**

**Stheno's smile wavered. "But, Euryale . . ." She said the name so it rhymed with Muriel. "Can't I give him a sample first?"**

**"No, you imbecile!" Euryale turned toward Percy and bared her fangs.**

"Don't hurt him," Annabeth said in a low, but steady, voice. She was fingering her knife. A few people actually inched away from her.

**Except for her hair, which was a nest of coral snakes instead of green vipers, she looked exactly like her sister. Her Bargain Mart vest, her flowery dress, even her tusks were decorated with 50% off stickers. Her name badge read: Hello! My name is DIE, DEMIGOD SCUM!**

"Well that's not obvious," Clarisse said. "Where's the action in here?"

**"You've led us quite a chase, Percy Jackson," Euryale said. "But now you're trapped, and we'll have our revenge!"**

**"The Cheese 'n' Wieners are only $2.99," Stheno added helpfully. "Grocery department, aisle three."**

"She's obsessed, " Chris said with a smile. This was one of the nicest, yet deadliest, monsters he had ever heard of.

**"Euryale snarled. "Stheno, the Bargain Mart was a front! You're going native! Now, put down that ridiculous tray and help me kill this demigod. Or have you forgotten that he's the one who vaporized Medusa?"**

"Whoah, Percy killed Medusa?" Leo asked in awe.

"Yeah, on his first quest back when we were twelve," Annabeth informed him.

"Twelve," Piper spoke, awed as much as Leo was. "That's so young. I can't imagine doing that when I'm _twelve_."

**Percy stepped back. Six more inches, and he'd be tumbling through thin air. "Look, ladies, we've been over this. I don't even remember killing Medusa. I don't remember anything! Can't we just call a truce and talk about your weekly specials?"Stheno gave her sister a pouty look, which was hard to do with giant bronze tusks. "Can we?**

The campers snickered. "She sure is hopeful," Thailia said.

**"No!" Euryale's red eyes bored into Percy. "I don't care what you remember, son of the sea god. I can smell Medusa's blood on you. It's faint, yes, several years old, but you were the last one to defeat her. She still has not returned from Tartarus. It's your fault!"**

**Percy didn't really get that. The whole "dying then returning from Tartarus" concept gave him a headache.**

"Me, too, dude," Leo said. "Why can't they just stay dead? Like-forever?"

"Then what would be the purpose of our existence, boy?" a hunter of Artemis retorted.

**Of course, so did the idea that a ballpoint pen could turn into a sword or that monster could disguise themselves with something called the Mist, or that Percy was the son of a barnacle encrusted god from five thousand years ago.**

"Barnacle encrusted," Travis and Conner chortled. " His dad won't too happy about that, eh?"

"Eh? Seriously Travis?" Conner said shaking his head at his brother.

**But he did believe it. Even though his memory was erased, he knew he was a demigod the same way he knew his name was Percy Jackson. From his very first conversation with Lupa the wolf, he'd accepted that this crazy messed-up world of gods and monsters was his reality. Which pretty much sucked.**

"Ha," Jason scoffed. "I totally agree."

**"How about we call it a draw?" he said. "I can't kill you. You can't kill me. If you're Medusa's sisters—like the Medusa who turned people to stone—shouldn't I be petrified by now?" "Heroes!" Euryale said with disgust. "They always bring that up, just like our mother! 'Why can't you turn people to stone? Your sister can turn people to stone.' Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you, boy! That was Medusa's curse alone. She was the most hideous one in the family. She got all the luck!" Stheno looked hurt. "Mother said I was the most hideous."**

**"Quiet!" Euryale snapped. "As for you, Percy Jackson, it's true you bear the mark of Achilles. That makes you a little tougher to kill. But don't worry. We'll find a way."**

**"The mark of what?"**

"Yeah, what is that?" Leo asked.

"Hold on it explains here," Thailia said.

Jason and Piper, though understood and were gaping with open mouthsat what Percy did.

**"Achilles," Stheno said cheerfully. "Oh, he was gorgeous! Dipped in the River Styx as a child, you know, so he was invulnerable except for a tiny spot on his ankle. That's what happened to you, dear. Someone must've dumped you in the Styx and made your skin like iron.**

Annabeth glared at nothing in particular. "You know, I should thank Nico because he's the reason Percy is alive right now, but I'm still angry that he made Percy go through all that pain to do something that might fail and kill his soul."

Thailia nodded understanding her friends dilemma.

**But not to worry. Heroes like you always have a weak spot. We just have to find it, and then we can kill you. Won't that be lovely? Have a Cheese 'n' Wiener!"**

**Percy tried to think. He didn't remember any dip in the Styx. Then again, he didn't remember much of anything. His skin didn't feel like iron, but it would explain how he'd held out so long against the gorgons. Maybe if he just fell down the mountain . . . would he survive?**

**He didn't want to risk it—not without something to slow the fall, or a sled, or . . .**

**He looked at Stheno's large silver platter of free samples.**

**Hmm . . .**

"Oh my gods, " Annabeth said in shock. "He's actually planning something."

**"Reconsidering?" Stheno asked. "Very wise, dear. I added some gorgon's blood to these, so your death will be quick and painless."**

**Percy's throat constricted. "You added your blood to the Cheese 'n' Wieners?""Just a little." Stheno smiled. "A little nick on my arm, but you're sweet to be concerned. Blood from our right side can cure anything, you know, but blood from our left side is deadly—"**

**"You dimwit!" Euryale screeched. "You're not supposed to tell him that! He won't eat the wieners if you tell him they're poisoned!"**

"Why would she tell him that?" Malcom questioned rhetorically. " Not that I want him to die," he added quickly when Annabeth glared at him.

**Stheno looked stunned. "He won't? But I said it would be quick and painless."**

**"Never mind!" Euryale's fingernails grew into claws.**

**"We'll kill him the hard way—just keep slashing until we find the weak spot. Once we defeat Percy Jackson, we'll be more famous than Medusa! Our patron will reward us greatly!"**

**Percy gripped his sword. He'd have to time his move perfectly—a few seconds of confusion, grab the platter with his left hand . . .**

**Keep them talking, he thought.**

**"Before you slash me to bits," he said, "who's this patron you mentioned?"**

**Euryale sneered. "The goddess Gaea, of course! The one who brought us back from oblivion! You won't live long enough to meet her, but your friends below will soon face her wrath. Even now, her armies are marching south. At the Feast of Fortune, she'll awaken, and the demigods will be cut down like—like—"**

**"Like our low prices at Bargain Mart!" Stheno suggested.**

**"Gah!" Euryale stormed toward her sister.**

**Percy took the opening. He grabbed Stheno's platter, scattering poisoned Cheese 'n' Wieners, and slashed Riptide across Euryale's waist, cutting her in half.**

"Come on, Prissy!" Clarisse shouted. "Action!"

**He raised the platter, and Stheno found herself facing her own greasy reflection.**

**"Medusa!" she screamed.**

Some of the campers guffawed.

**Her sister Euryale had crumbled to dust, but she was already starting to re-form, like a snowman un-melting.**

"They're reforming even fatser than I remember," Jason said worriedly.

**"Stheno, you fool!" she gurgled as her half-made face rose from the mound of dust. "That's just your own reflection! Get him!"**

**Percy slammed the metal tray on top of Stheno's head and she passed out cold.**

Leo whistled. "Tough guy."

**He put the platter behind his butt, said a silent prayer to whatever Roman god oversaw stupid sledding tricks, and jumped off the side of the hill.**

As soon as she finished, Annabeth grabbed the book form her and began to read **Percy II**.


	3. Percy II

**A/N- Here's Percy II! I hope you like it!**

**Percy II**, Annabeth read.

**THE THING ABOUT PLUMMETING DOWNHILL at fifty miles an hour on a snack platter—if you realize it's a bad idea when you're halfway down, it's too late.**

"Oh, Seaweed Brain, your ideas are never great," Thailia said in an impression of Annabeth with her hands folded next to her cheek like a princess talking to her prince.

Annabeth smirked.

**Percy narrowly missed a tree, glanced off a boulder, and spun a three-sixty as he shot toward the highway.**

**The stupid snack tray did not have power steering.**

"No duh," the Athena cabin said.

**He heard the gorgon sisters screaming and caught a glimpse of Euryale's coral-snake hair at the top of the hill, but he didn't have time to worry about it. The roof of the apartment building loomed below him like the prow of a battleship. Head-on collision in ten, nine, eight…**

**He managed to swivel sideways to avoid breaking his legs on impact. The snack platter skittered across the roof and sailed through the air. The platter went one way. Percy went the other.**

**As he fell toward the highway, a horrible scenario flashed through his mind: his body smashing against an SUV's windshield, some annoyed commuter trying to push him off with the wipers. Stupid sixteen-year-old kid falling from the sky! I'm late!**

The camp snickered. Even Chiron cracked a smile.

Annabeth thought, _There's Percy again, always joking even in the face of death._

**Miraculously, a gust of wind blew him to one side—just enough to miss the highway and crash into a clump of bushes. It wasn't a soft landing, but it was better than asphalt.**

**Percy groaned. He wanted to lie there and pass out, but he** **had to keep moving. He struggled to his feet.**

"Is that part of the Achille's curse?" Thailia asked Annabeth.

"I think it is," she nodded.

**His hands were scratched up, but no bones seemed to be broken. He still had his backpack. Somewhere on the sled ride he'd lost his sword, but Percy knew it would eventually reappear in his pocket in pen form. That was part of its magic.**

"That's so cool," Leo said. "I want one."

"Imagine if it didn't come back," Thailia grumbled. "We'd probably be dead. "

Annabeth didn't like that, so she continued to read.

**He glanced up the hill. The gorgons were hard to miss, with their colorful snake hair and their bright green Bargain Mart vests. They were picking their way down the slope, going slower than Percy but with a lot more control. Those chicken feet must've been good for climbing.**

"Of course they are," Malcom said. "The feet-"

"Shut up, Brain boy," Clarisse said. "I want to hear this."

**Percy figured he had maybe five minutes before they reached him. Next to him, a tall chain-link fence separated the highway from a neighborhood of winding streets, cozy houses, and tall eucalyptus trees. The fence was probably there to keep people from getting onto the highway and doing stupid things—like sledding into the fast lane on snack trays—but the chain-link was full of big holes. Percy could easily slip through into the neighborhood. Maybe he could find a car and drive west to the ocean. He didn't like stealing cars, but over the past few weeks, in life-and-death situations, he'd "borrowed" several, including a police cruiser.**

Leo laughed so hard he fell off of his log seat.

"Borrowed a police cruiser?" Jason said. He turned to Piper.

"That tops what I did," she put her hands up in surrender.

"What you did?" the Stolls were interested now.

The camp shuddered to think of what they could pull off with persuasive charmspeak and pranking masterminds.

Annabeth went back to reading.

**He'd meant to return them, but they never seemed to last very long.**

**He glanced east. Just as he'd figured, a hundred yards uphill the highway cut through the base of the cliff. Two tunnel entrances, one for each direction of traffic, stared down at him like eye sockets of a giant skull.**

**In the middle, where the nose would have been, a cement wall jutted from the hillside, with a metal door like the entrance to a bunker.**

**It might have been a maintenance tunnel. That's probably what mortals thought, if they noticed the door at all. But they couldn't see through the Mist. Percy knew the door was more than that. Two kids in armor flanked the entrance. They wore a bizarre mix of plumed Roman helmets, breastplates, scabbards, blue jeans, purple T-shirts, and white athletic shoes.**

"Legionaries from Camp Jupitor," Jason explained. "They have people on guard, though we do have a border like here, too."

**The guard on the right looked like a girl, though it was hard to tell for sure with all the armor. The one on the left was a stocky guy with a bow and quiver on his back. Both kids held long wooden staffs with iron spear tips, like old-fashioned harpoons.**

**Percy's internal radar was pinging like crazy. After so many horrible days, he'd finally reached his goal. His instincts told him that if he could make it inside that door, he might find safety for the first time since the wolves had sent him south. So why did he feel such dread? Farther up the hill, the gorgons were scrambling over the roof of the apartment complex. Three minutes away—maybe less. Part of him wanted to run to the door in the hill. He'd have to cross to the median of the highway, but then it would be a short sprint. He could make it before the gorgons reached him. Part of him wanted to head west to the ocean. That's where he'd be safest. That's where his power would be greatest. Those Roman guards at the door made him uneasy. Something inside him said: This isn't my territory. This is dangerous. "You're right, of course," said a voice next to him. Percy jumped. At first he thought Beano had managed to sneak up on him again, but the old lady sitting in the bushes was even more repulsive than a gorgon.**

**She looked like a hippie who'd been kicked to the side of the road maybe forty years ago, where she'd been collecting trash and rags ever since. She wore a dress made of tie-dyed cloth, ripped-up quilts, and plastic grocery bags. Her frizzy mop of hair was gray-brown, like root-beer foam, tied back with a peace-sign headband. Warts and moles covered her face. When she smiled, she showed exactly three teeth. "It isn't a maintenance tunnel," she confided. "It's the entrance to camp." A jolt went up Percy's spine. Camp. Yes, that's where he was from. A camp. Maybe this was his home. Maybe Annabeth was close by.**

"Wrong coast, Percy," Annabeth shook her head sadly.

**But something felt wrong. The gorgons were still on the roof of the apartment building. Then Stheno shrieked in delight and pointed in Percy's direction. The old hippie lady raised her eyebrows. "Not much time, child. You need to make your choice." "Who are you?" Percy asked, though he wasn't sure he wanted to know. The last thing he needed was another harmless mortal who turned out to be a monster. "Oh, you can call me June." The old lady's eyes sparkled as if she'd made an excellent joke. "It is June, isn't it? They named the month after me!"**

" Juno- it's Hera," Annabeth said disgusted.

**"Okay…Look, I should go. Two gorgons are coming. I don't want them to hurt you."**

**June clasped her hands over her heart. "How sweet! But that's part of your choice!"**

"I feel bad," Thailia mentioned. "The weight of the world always seems to be on his shoulders."

**"My choice…" Percy glanced nervously toward the hill. The gorgons had taken off their green vests. Wings sprouted from their backs—small bat wings, which glinted like brass. Since when did they have wings?**

"They always had wings," the Athena cabin chorused.

**Maybe they were ornamental. Maybe they were too small to get a gorgon into the air.**

**Then the two sisters leaped off the apartment building and soared toward him. Great. Just great. "Yes, a choice," June said, as if she were in no hurry. "You could leave me here at the mercy of the gorgons and go to the ocean. You'd make it there safely, I guarantee. The gorgons will be quite happy to attack me and let you go. In the sea, no monster would bother you. You could begin a new life, live to a ripe old age, and escape a great deal of pain and misery that is in your future." Percy was pretty sure he wasn't** **going to like the second option.**

"No one ever does," Jason said, completely understanding.

**"Or?"**

**"Or you could do a good deed for an old lady," she said. "Carry me to the camp with you." "Carry you?" Percy hoped she was kidding. Then June hiked up her skirts and showed him her swollen purple feet. "I can't get there by myself," she said. "Carry me to camp—across the highway, through the tunnel, across the river." Percy didn't know what river she meant, but it didn't sound easy.**

**June looked pretty heavy.**

Annabeth snickered at the 'oh so' misfortunes of her least favorite goddess.** The gorgons were only fifty yards away now—leisurely gliding toward him as if they knew the hunt was almost over. Percy looked at the old lady. "And I'd carry you to this camp because—?" "Because it's a kindness!" she said. "And if you don't, the gods will die, the world we know will perish, and everyone from your old life will be destroyed. Of course, you wouldn't remember them, so I suppose it won't matter. You'd be safe at the bottom of the sea.…" Percy swallowed.**

"He'll make the right choice," Annabeth assured the new campers. "He always does."

**The gorgons shrieked with laughter as they soared in for the kill. "If I go to the camp," he said, "will I get my memory back?"**

The whole camp leaned forward. The flames of the fire grew taller in the ongoing yellow-magenta color.

**"Eventually," June said. "But be warned, you will sacrifice much! You'll lose the mark of Achilles. You'll feel pain, misery, and loss beyond anything you've ever known.**

**But you might have a chance to save your old friends and family, to reclaim your old life."**

"Do it!" all those who were close to Percy said.

**The gorgons were circling right overhead. They were probably studying the old woman, trying to figure out who the new player was before they struck. "What about those guards at the door?" Percy asked. June smiled. "Oh, they'll let you in, dear. You can trust those two. So, what do you say? Will you help a defenseless old woman?" Percy doubted June was defenseless.**

"And he's right," Piper said. Hera was the only one of the gods she had met and she seemed _pretty_ powerful.

**At worst, this was a trap. At best, it was some kind of test. Percy hated tests.**

**Since he'd lost his memory, his whole life was one big fill in-the-blank. He was_, from_. He felt like_, and if the monsters caught him, he'd be_.**

The whole camp laughed at that.

**Then he thought about Annabeth, the only part** **of his old life he was sure about.**

"That's _so _sweet!" the Aphrodite cabin squealed at Percy's thoughts.

**He had to find her. "I'll carry you." He scooped up the old woman. She was lighter than he expected. Percy tried to ignore her sour breath and her calloused hands clinging to his neck. He made it across the first lane of traffic. A driver honked. Another yelled something that was lost in the wind.**

**Most just swerved and looked irritated, as if they had to deal with a lot of ratty teenagers carrying old hippie women across the freeway here in Berkeley.**

**A shadow fell over him. Stheno called down gleefully, "Clever boy! Found a goddess to carry, did you?" A goddess? June cackled with delight, muttering, and "Whoops!" as a car almost killed them.**

"Whoops?" Annabeth said when she heard this. "His life is on the line and she says 'Whoops'?"

Some campers inched away from her because of the malice in her voice.

**Somewhere off to his left, Euryale screamed, "Get them! Two prizes are better than one!"**

**Percy bolted across the remaining lanes. Somehow he made it to the median alive. He saw the gorgons swooping down, cars swerving as the monsters passed overhead. He wondered what the mortals saw through the Mist—giant pelicans?**

**Off course hang gliders? The wolf Lupa had told him that mortal minds could believe just about anything—except the truth. Percy ran for the door in the hillside. June got heavier with every step. Percy's heart pounded. His ribs ached. One of the guards yelled. The guy with the bow nocked an arrow. Percy shouted, "Wait!" But the boy wasn't aiming at him. The arrow flew over Percy's head. A gorgon wailed in pain. The second guard readied her spear, gesturing frantically at Percy to hurry. Fifty feet from the door. Thirty feet. "Gotcha!" shrieked Euryale. Percy turned as an arrow thudded into her forehead. Euryale tumbled into the fast lane. A truck slammed into her and carried her backward a hundred yards, but she just climbed over the cab, pulled the arrow out of her head, and launched back into the air. Percy reached the door. "Thanks," he told the guards. "Good shot." "That should've killed her!" the archer protested. "Welcome to my world," Percy muttered. "Frank," the girl said. "Get them inside, quick! Those are gorgons." "Gorgons?" The archer's voice squeaked. It was hard to tell much about him under the helmet, but he looked stout like a wrestler, maybe fourteen or fifteen. "Will the door hold them?" In Percy's arms, June cackled. "No, no it won't. Onward, Percy Jackson! Through the tunnel, over the river!"**

The Stoll brothers started whistling 'Over the river and through the woods'. Some Hermes kids cracked up.

**"Percy Jackson?" The female guard was darker-skinned, with curly hair sticking out the sides of her helmet. She looked younger than Frank—maybe thirteen.**

**Her sword scabbard came down almost to her ankle. Still, she sounded like she was the one in charge. "Okay, you're obviously a demigod. But who's the—?" She glanced at June. "Never mind. Just get inside. I'll hold them off." "Hazel," the boy said.**

"Hazel?" Jason looked momentarily confused, trying to put a name with a face. "Oh, I remember her! She's one of my friends!"

**"Don't be crazy." "Go!" she demanded. Frank cursed in another language— was that Latin?—and opened the door.**

**"Come on!" Percy followed, staggering under the weight of the old lady, who was definitely getting heavier.**

**He didn't know how that girl Hazel would hold off the gorgons by herself, but he was too tired to argue. The tunnel cut through solid rock, about the width and height of a school hallway. At first, it looked like a typical maintenance tunnel, with electric cables, warning signs, and fuse boxes on the walls, light bulbs in wire cages along the ceiling. As they ran deeper into the hillside, the cement floor changed to tiled mosaic. The lights changed to reed torches, which burned but didn't smoke. A few hundred yards ahead, Percy saw a square of daylight. The old lady was heavier now than a pile of sandbags. Percy's arms shook from the strain. June mumbled a song in Latin, like a lullaby, which didn't help Percy concentrate.**

"Come on, Hera. We're a bunch of ADHD kids, of course we'll get distracted," Katie said huffing.

**Behind them, the gorgons' voices echoed in the tunnel. Hazel shouted. Percy was tempted to dump June and runback to help, but then the entire tunnel shook with the rumble of falling stone. There was a squawking sound, just like the gorgons had made when Percy had dropped a crate of bowling balls on them in Napa.**

**He glanced back. The west end of the tunnel was now filled with dust. "Shouldn't we check on Hazel?" he asked. "She'll be okay—I hope," Frank said. "She's good underground. Just keep moving! We're almost there."**

**"Almost where?"**

**June chuckled. "All roads lead there, child. You should know that."**

"Detention?" Thailia put in.

**"Detention?" Percy asked.**

She scowled. The camp laughed. Chiron and Annabeth smiled.

"I once told Percy that you two were so alike that you'd either be best friends or worst enemies," Annabeth told her chuckling.

"I'm glad we're friends then," Thailia grumbled obviously annoyed that they thought alike.

**"Rome, child," the old woman said. "Rome." Percy wasn't sure he'd heard her right. True, his memory was gone. His brain hadn't felt right since he had woken up at the Wolf House. But he was pretty sure Rome wasn't in California.**

"Captain Obvious," some camper said.

**They kept running. The glow at the end of the tunnel grew brighter, and finally they burst into sunlight. Percy froze. Spread out at his feet was a bowl-shaped valley several miles wide. The basin floor was rumpled with smaller hills, golden plains, and stretches of forest. A small clear river cut a winding course from a lake in the center and around the perimeter, like a capital G. The geography could've been anywhere in northern California—live oaks and eucalyptus trees, gold hills and blue skies. That big inland mountain—what was it called, Mount Diablo?—rose in the distance, right where it should be. But Percy felt like he'd stepped into a secret world.**

**In the center of the valley, nestled by the lake, was a small city of white marble buildings with red-tiled roofs. Some had domes and columned porticoes, like national monuments. Others looked like palaces, with golden doors and large gardens. He could see an open plaza with freestanding columns, fountains, and statues. A five-story-tall Roman coliseum gleamed in the sun, next to a long oval arena like a racetrack. Across the lake to the south, another hill was dotted with even more impressive buildings—temples, Percy guessed. Several stone bridges crossed the river as it wound through the valley, and in the north, a long line of brickwork arches stretched from the hills into the town. Percy thought it looked like an elevated train track. Then he realized it must be an aqueduct. **

"Good, that's good for Percy," Annabeth nodded.

**The strangest part of the valley was right below him. About two hundred yards away, just across the river, was some sort of military encampment. It was about a quarter mile square, with earthen ramparts on all four sides, the tops lined with sharpened spikes. Outside the walls ran a dry moat, also studded with spikes.**

"I like these Romans," Sherman from the Ares cabin suddenly decided.

**Wooden watchtowers rose at each corner, manned by sentries with oversized, mounted crossbows. Purple banners hung from the towers. A wide gateway opened on the far side of camp, leading toward the city. A narrower gate stood closed on the riverbank side. Inside, the fortress bustled with activity: dozens of kids going to and from barracks, carrying weapons, polishing armor. Percy heard the clank of hammers at a forge and smelled meat cooking over a fire. Something about this place felt very familiar, yet not quite right. "Camp Jupiter, Frank said."We'll be safe once—" Footsteps echoed in the tunnel behind them. Hazel burst into the light. She was covered with stone dust and breathing hard. She'd lost her helmet, so her curly brown hair fell around her shoulders. Her armor had long slash marks in front from the claws of a gorgon. One of the monsters had tagged her with a 50% off sticker.**

"Funny sight," Travis snickered.

**"I slowed them down," she said. "But they'll be here any second." Frank cursed. "We have to get across the river." June squeezed Percy's neck tighter. "Oh, yes, please. I can't get my dress wet."**

**Percy bit his tongue. If this lady was a goddess, she must've been the goddess of smelly, heavy, useless hippies.**

"HA!" Annabeth interrupted herself, laughing.

**But he'd come this far. He'd better keep lugging her along. It's a kindness, she'd said. And if you don't, the gods will die, the world we know will perish, and everyone from your old life will be destroyed. If this was a test, he couldn't afford to get an F. He stumbled a few times as they ran for the river. Frank and Hazel kept him on his feet. They reached the riverbank, and Percy stopped to catch his breath. The current was fast, but the river didn't look deep. Only a stone's throw across stood the gates of the fort. "Go, Hazel." Frank nocked two arrows at once. "Escort Percy so the sentries don't shoot him.**

**It's my turn to hold off the baddies." Hazel nodded and waded into the stream. Percy started to follow, but something made him hesitated. Usually he loved the water, but this river seemed…powerful, and not necessarily friendly. "The Little Tiber," said June sympathetically. "It flows with the power of the original Tiber, river of the empire. This is your last chance to back out, child. The mark of Achilles is a Greek blessing. You can't retain it if you cross into Roman territory. The Tiber will wash it away."**

**Percy was too exhausted to understand all that, but he got the main point. "If I cross, I won't have iron skin anymore?" June smiled. "So what will it be? Safety, or a future of pain and possibility?" Behind him, the gorgons screeched as they flew from the tunnel. Frank let his arrows fly. From the middle of the river, Hazel yelled, "Percy, come on!" Up on the watchtowers, horns blew. The sentries shouted and swiveled their crossbows toward the gorgons. Annabeth, Percy thought. He forged into the river. **

"Awwwwwww!"- the Aphrodite cabin. "You're his motivation!"

**It was icy cold, much swifter than he'd imagined, but that didn't bother him. New strength surged through his limbs. His senses tingled like he'd been injected with caffeine. He reached the other side and put the old woman down as the camp's gates opened. Dozens of kids in armor poured out.**

**Hazel turned with a relieved smile. Then she looked over Percy's shoulder, and her expression changed to horror. "Frank!" Frank was halfway across the river when the gorgons caught him. They swooped out of the sky and grabbed him by either arm. He screamed in pain as their claws dug into his skin. The sentries yelled, but Percy knew they couldn't get a clear shot. They'd end up killing Frank. The other kids drew swords and got ready to charge into the water, but they'd be too late. There was only one way. Percy thrust out his hands. An intense tugging sensation filled his gut, and the Tiber obeyed his will. The river surged. Whirlpools formed on either side of Frank.**

"Whooooah," Jason, Leo, and Piper said in awe.

**Giant watery hands erupted from the stream, copying Percy's movements.**

"Whooooooaaaaaahhhhhh!" They all said. The camp was in awe. Jason, Piper and Leo were in awe.

"That is totally beast!" Leo said, bouncing up and down like a little kid.

**The giant hands grabbed the gorgons, who dropped Frank in surprise. Then the hands lifted the squawking monsters in a liquid vise grip Percy heard the other kids yelping and backing away, but he stayed focused on his task.**

**He made a smashing gesture with his fists, and the giant hands plunged the gorgons into the Tiber. The monsters hit bottom and broke into dust. Glittering clouds of gorgon essence struggled to re-form, but the river pulled them apart like a blender. Soon every trace of the gorgons was swept downstream. The whirlpools vanished, and the current returned to normal.**

**Percy stood on the riverbank. His clothes and his skin steamed as if the Tiber's waters had given him an acid bath He felt exposed, raw…vulnerable.**

"The curse is gone," Annabeth stated in wonder. The greek world was still mysterious to her though she knew it all her life.

**In the middle of the Tiber, Frank stumbled around, looking stunned but perfectly fine. Hazel waded out and helped him ashore. Only then did Percy realize how quiet the other kids had become.**

**Everyone was staring at him. Only the old lady June looked unfazed. "Well, that was a lovely trip," she said. "Thank you, Percy Jackson, for bringing me to Camp Jupiter." One of the girls made a choking sound. "Percy…Jackson?" She sounded as if she recognized his name.**

"A Roman knows Percy?" Will asked confused.

**Percy focused on her, hoping to see a familiar face. She was obviously a leader. She wore a regal purple cloak over her armor. Her chest was decorated with medals. She must have been about Percy's age, with dark, piercing eyes and long black hair.**

"Why does she sound familiar?" Annabeth asked, her brain working 'a million miles an hour' as Percy once put it.

**Percy didn't recognize her, but the girl stared at him as if she'd seen him in her nightmares. June laughed with delight. "Oh, yes. You'll have such fun together!" Then, just because the day hadn't been weird enough already, the old lady began to glow and change form.**

**She grew until she was a shining, seven-foot-tall goddess in a blue dress, with a cloak that looked like goat's skin over her shoulders. Her face was stern and stately. In her hand was a staff topped with a lotus flower.**

"The symbols of Juno," Jason and Annabeth said. Jason, growning up with it, and Annabeth, from doing her research.

**If it was possible for the campers to look more stunned, they did. The girl with the purple cloak knelt. The others followed her lead. One kid got down so hastily he almost impaled himself on his sword.**

"Poor him," Clovis said, half asleep. Then he thought about it. "Or her," he decided.

**Hazel was the first to speak. "Juno." She and Frank also fell to their knees, leaving Percy the only one standing. He knew he should probably kneel too, but after carrying the old lady so far, he didn't feel like showing her that much respect.**

"Good, you shouldn't, "Annabeth said.

**"Juno, huh?" he said. "If I passed your test, can I have my memory and my life back?" The goddess smiled. "In time, Percy Jackson, if you succeed here at camp. You've done well today, which is a good start. Perhaps there's hope for you yet." She turned to the other kids. "Romans, I present to you the son of Neptune. For months he has been slumbering, but now he is awake. His fate is in your hands. The Feast of Fortune comes quickly, and Death must be unleashed if you are to stand any hope in the battle.**

**Do not fail me!" Juno shimmered and disappeared. Percy looked at Hazel and Frank for some kind of explanation, but they seemed just as confused as he was. Frank was holding something Percy hadn't noticed before— two small clay flasks with cork stoppers, like potions, one in each hand. **

**Percy had no idea where they'd come from, but he saw Frank slip them into his pockets. Frank gave him a look like: We'll talk about it later. The girl in the purple cloak stepped forward. She examined Percy warily, and Percy couldn't shake the feeling that she wanted to run him through with her dagger. "So," she said coldly, "a son of Neptune, who comes to us with the blessing of Juno." **

**"Look," he said, "my memory's a little fuzzy. Um, it's gone, actually. Do I know you?" The girl hesitated. "I am Reyna, praetor of the Twelfth Legion.**

**And…no, I don't know you." That last part was a lie. Percy could tell from her eyes.**

"It's funny," Thailia said, "how he picks up on the small things, but not the BIG, OBVIOUS DETAILS!" She looked at Annabeth while she said this, and Annabeth blushed a deep scarlet.

**But he also understood that if he argued with her about it here, in front of her soldiers, she wouldn't appreciate it. "Hazel," said Reyna, "bring him inside. I want to question him at the principia. Then we'll** **send him to Octavian. We must consult the auguries before we decide what to do with him."**

"Decide what to do with him?" Annabeth said. "What does _that_ mean?"

**"What do you mean," Percy asked, "'decide what to do with' me?"**

**Reyna's hand tightened on her dagger. Obviously she was not used to having her orders questioned. "Before we accept anyone into camp, we must interrogate them and read the auguries. Juno said your fate is in our hands. We have to know whether the goddess has brought us as a new recruit.…" Reyna studied Percy as if she found that doubtful. "Or," she said more hopefully, "if she's brought us an enemy to kill."**

"They better not kill him, Jason!" Annabeth said accusingly to him.

Jason was already on the defensive side. "From what I've heard about Percy, he seems like he should have been fine at the Roman camp. Can I read next?"

"Fine," Annabeth measured and handed him the book.


	4. Percy III

**A/N-Hi, guys! I hope this is coming along well! Thanks for reading! Please read and Review! Thanks again!**

**Percy III**, Jason read in a loud, clear voice.

**PERCY WASN'T SCARED OF GHOSTS, which was lucky.**

"Um, why would that be lucky?" Leo asked.

**Half the people in camp were dead.**

"Oh," was all Leo said.

**Shimmering purple warriors stood outside the armory, polishing ethereal swords. Others hung out in front of the barracks. A ghostly boy chased a ghostly dog down the street. And at the stables, a big glowing red dude with the head of a wolf guarded a herd of…Were those unicorns?**

"Unicorns," Conner snickered to his brother. "And I thought Romans were supposed to be tough."

They laughed.

**None of the campers paid the ghosts much attention, but as Percy's entourage walked by, with Reyna in the lead and Frank and Hazel on either side, all the spirits stopped what they were doing and stared at Percy. A few looked angry. The little boy ghost shrieked something like "Greggus!" and turned invisible.**

"Greggus?" Malcom questioned.

**Percy wished he could turn invisible too. After weeks on his own, all this attention made him uneasy. He stayed between Hazel and Frank and tried to look inconspicuous. "Am I seeing things?" he asked. "Or are those—"**

**"Ghosts?" Hazel turned. She had startling eyes, like fourteen-karat** **gold.**

Annabeth and Thalia thought of Luke's eyes when he was Kronos and winced.

**"They're Lares. House gods."**

"Watch, he's going to make some stupid joke about how they're related to houses or apartments or something," Thailia said.

"Annabeth nodded. "I'd be surprised if he didn't."

**"House gods," Percy said. "Like…smaller than real gods, but larger than apartment gods?"**

"Thailia and Annabeth smiled while the rest of the camp laughed.

"I like this guy!" Leo said. "He knows how to tell a good joke! Take's the seriousness of the situation away!"

**"They're ancestral spirits," Frank explained. He'd removed his helmet, revealing a babyish face that didn't go with his military haircut or his big burly frame. He looked like a toddler who'd taken steroids and joined the Marines. "The Lares are kind of like mascots," he continued. "Mostly they're harmless, but I've never seen them so agitated." "They're staring at me," Percy said. "That ghost kid called me Greggus. My name isn't Greg."**

"Only he would say that," Annabeth said while Thailia nodded her head.

**"Graecus," Hazel said. "Once you've been here awhile, you'll start understanding Latin. Demigods have a natural sense for it. Graecus means Greek."**

"Oh," Malcom said.

**"Is that bad?" Percy asked.**

"Well, on Roman territory it might be," Annabeth said, "But, otherwise, why would it be bad?"

**Frank cleared his throat. "Maybe not. You've got that type of complexion, the dark hair and all. Maybe they think you're actually Greek. Is your family from there?"**

"Well, we are from Greece a few centuries back," Chris joked.

**"Don't know. Like I said, my memory is gone." **

**"Or maybe…" Frank hesitated.**

"How could he know?" one of the younger campers asked.

**"What?" Percy asked.**

**"Probably nothing," Frank said.**

**"Romans and Greeks have an old rivalry. Sometimes Romans use graecus as an insult for someone who's an outsider—an enemy.**

"We are _not _their enemies," Piper said. "We're trying to make peace with them, aren't we , Jason?"

He looked up from the book. "Of course, why else was I sent here?" he joked.

**I wouldn't worry about it." He sounded pretty worried.**

"I wouldn't worry about it either. Percy's one of the most trustworthy guys you'll ever meet," Grover spoke.

**They stopped at the center of camp, where two wide stone-paved roads met at a T. A street sign labeled the road to the main gates as via praetoria. The other road, cutting across the middle of camp, was labeled via principalis. Under those markers were hand-painted signs like Berkeley 5 miles; NEW ROME 1 MILE; OLD ROME 7280 MILES; HADES 2310 MILES (pointing straight down); RENO 208 MILES, AND CERTAIN DEATH: YOU ARE HERE!**

"Why do they call Hades Hades in that sign at the Roman Camp," a young Athena camper asked. "I thought he was called Pluto."

"He is," Annabeth replied in confusion. "I don't know."

Most of the camp gasped.

"What?" Annabeth asked.

"Annabeth Chase doesn't _know_ something!" someone said.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "It's not the first time that's happened," she admitted grudgingly.

Travis turned to Conner, "This is so going on the list."

"What list?" Annabeth asked them, knowing that whatever list they made could only cause problems for the camp.

"Oh, it's nothing," Travis and Conner said in a sing-song voice.

Annabeth decided to let it be and come back to it later.

She waved for Jason to read on.

**For certain death, the place looked pretty clean and orderly. The buildings were freshly whitewashed, laid out in neat grids like the camp had been designed by a fussy math teacher. The barracks had shady porches, where campers lounged in hammocks or played cards and drank sodas. Each dorm had a different collection of banners out front displaying Roman numerals and various animals—eagle, bear, wolf, horse, and something that looked like a hamster. Along the Via Praetoria, rows of shops advertised food, armor, weapons, coffee, gladiator equipment, and toga rentals. A chariot dealership had a big advertisement out front: CAESAR XLS W/ANTILOCK BRAKES, NO DENARII DOWN! At one corner of the crossroads stood the most impressive building—a two-story wedge of white marble with a columned portico like an old-fashioned bank.**

"Ah, Travis," Conner said, "old places are so easy to loot."

"Totally," Travis agreed.

"You do realize," Thailia said, "that the reason Hera arranged the switch in the first place is so that we could get along, right? That doesn't mean you go around stealing from them when you get there."

"Oh, but Thailia," Travis started.

"We would never steal from _them _on the _first_ day," Conner finished.

"The second or third, maybe," Travis said. "We have to earn their trust first."

"Then they'll see it as a prank!" Conner concluded.

The camp groaned while the Hermes cabin congratulated them on their smart thinking.

**Roman guards stood out front. Over the doorway hung a big purple banner with the gold letters SPQR embroidered inside a laurel wreath.**

**"Your headquarters?" Percy asked. Reyna faced him, her eyes still cold and hostile. "It's called the principia." She scanned the mob of curious campers who had followed them from the river. "Everyone back to your duties. I'll give you an update at evening muster. Remember, we have war games after dinner." The thought of dinner made Percy's stomach rumble. The scent of barbecue from the dining hall made his mouth water. The bakery down the street smelled pretty wonderful too, but he doubted Reyna would let him get an order to go. The crowd dispersed reluctantly. Some muttered comments about Percy's chances. "He's dead," said one. "Would be those two who found him," said another. "Yeah," muttered another. "Let him join the Fifth Cohort. Greeks and geeks."**

"Hey!" most of the camp was offended by that.

**Several kids laughed at that, but Reyna scowled at them, and they cleared off. **

**"Hazel," Reyna said. "Come with us. I want your report on what happened at the gates." **

"That's good," Piper said," so now Reyna will know exactly what happened and not some sort of lie made up by the campers.

**"Me too?" Frank said. "Percy saved my life. We've got to let him—" Reyna gave Frank such a harsh look, he stepped back.**

**"I'd remind you, Frank Zhang," she said, "you are on probatio yourself. You've caused enough trouble this week.**

The campers looked at Jason.

"Probatio means new camper," Jason explained.

"**Frank's ears turned red. He fiddled with a little tablet on a cord around his neck. Percy hadn't paid much attention to it, but it looked like a name tag made out of lead. **

**"Go to the armory," Reyna told him. "Check our inventory. I'll call you if I need you."**

**"But—" Frank caught himself. "Yes, Reyna." He hurried off.**

Will whistled, "She has some serious power."

**Reyna waved Hazel and Percy toward the headquarters. "Now, Percy Jackson, let's see if we can improve your memory." The principia was even more impressive inside. On the ceiling glittered a mosaic of Romulus and Remus under their adopted mama she-wolf (Lupa had told Percy that story a million times).**

Leo laughed, "Mama she- wolf." Then he said, Isn't she wolf a song by Shakira?"

"Oh, Leo," Piper rolled her eyes. "Maybe there isn't any hope for you."

"Hey-hey, Beauty Queen!" Leo glared at her. He saw Jason snickering. "You, too, Sparky!"

**The floor was polished marble. The walls were draped in velvet, so Percy felt like he was inside the world's most expensive camping tent. And wooden poles studded with bronze. Along the back wall stood a display of banners medals—military symbols, Percy guessed.**

Annabeth nodded. "The Romans were very big on military."

**In the center was one empty display stand, as if the main banner had been taken down for cleaning or something. In the back corner, a stairwell led down. It was blocked by a row of iron bars like a prison door. Percy wondered what was down there—monsters? Treasure? Amnesiac demigods who had gotten on Reyna's bad side?**

"We're not _that _harsh," Jason commented.

**In the center of the room, a long wooden table was cluttered with scrolls, notebooks, tablet computers, daggers, and a large bowl filled with jelly beans, which seemed kind of out of place.**

**Two life-sized statues of greyhounds—one silver, one gold—flanked the table.**

"I think I remember those…," Jason said more to himself than the others.

**Reyna walked behind the table and sat in one of two high-backed chairs. Percy wished he could sit in the other, but Hazel remained standing. Percy got the feeling he was supposed to also. "So…" he started to say. The dog statues bared their teeth and growled. Percy froze. Normally he liked dogs, but these glared at him with ruby eyes. Their fangs looked sharp as razors. "Easy, guys," Reyna told the greyhounds. They stopped growling, but kept eyeing Percy as though they were imagining him in a doggie bag.**

**"They won't attack," Reyna said, "unless you try to steal something, or unless I tell them to. That's Argentum and Aurum." "Silver and Gold," Percy said. The Latin meanings popped into his head like Hazel had said they would. He almost asked which dog was which. Then he realized that that was a stupid question.**

"Same old Seaweed Brain," Annabeth snorted.

"And you're glad he hasn't changed much," Thailia pointed out.

"Of course," Annabeth smiled.

**Reyna set her dagger on the table. Percy had the vague feeling he'd seen her before.**

"But where?" said Annabeth getting frustrated. She _knew_ she had seen her before.

**Her hair was black and glossy as volcanic rock, woven in a single braid down her back. She had the poise of a sword fighter—relaxed yet vigilant, as if ready to spring into action at any moment. The worry lines around her eyes made her look older than she probably was. "We have met," he decided. "I don't remember when. Please, if you can tell me anything—" "First things first," Reyna said. "I want to hear your story. What do you remember? How did you get here? And don't lie. My dogs don't like liars." Argentum and Aurum snarled to emphasize the point.**

**Percy told his story—how he'd woken up at the ruined mansion in the woods of Sonoma. He described his time with Lupa and her pack, learning their language of gestures and expressions, learning to survive and fight. Lupa had taught him about demigods, monsters, and gods. She'd explained that she was one of the guardian spirits of Ancient Rome. Demigods like Percy were still responsible for carrying on Roman traditions in modern times—fighting monsters, serving the gods, protecting mortals, and upholding the memory of the empire. She'd spent weeks training him, until he was as strong and tough and vicious as a wolf.**

**When she was satisfied with his skills, she'd sent him south, telling him that if he survived the journey, he might find a new home and regain his memory. None of it seemed to surprise Reyna. In fact, she seemed to find it pretty ordinary—except for one thing. "No memory at all?" she asked. "You still remember nothing?"**

**"Fuzzy bits and pieces." Percy glanced at the greyhounds. He didn't want to mention Annabeth.**

"And why not?" Annabeth asked.

**It seemed too private, and he was still confused about where to find her. He was sure they'd met at a camp—but this one didn't feel like the right place. **

**Also, he was reluctant to share his one clear memory: Annabeth's face, her blond hair and gray eyes, the way she laughed, threw her arms around him, and gave him a kiss whenever he did something stupid.**

"Oh," Annabeth said, her cheeks reddening.

"So, a lot then," Thailia stated, not asking.

Annabeth glared at her.

**She must have kissed me a lot, Percy thought.**

"HAHAAHAHAHAHAHAA!" Thailia laughed with the rest of the camp.

The Aphrodite girls were out of their mids gushing over how cute a couple Percy and Annabeth were.

**He feared that if he spoke about that memory to anyone, it would evaporate like a dream. He couldn't risk that. Reyna spun her dagger. "Most of what you're describing is normal for demigods. At a certain age, one way or another, we find our way to the Wolf House. We're tested and trained. If Lupa thinks we're worthy, she sends us south to join the legion. But I've never heard of someone losing his memory. How did you find Camp Jupiter?" Percy told her about the last three days—the gorgons who wouldn't die, the old lady who turned out to be a goddess, and finally meeting Hazel and Frank at the tunnel in the hill. Hazel took the story from there. She described Percy as brave and heroic, which made him uncomfortable. All he'd done was carry a hippie bag lady.**

"YES! Thank you!" Annabeth said in accordance to what thought about Hera. "But he's too modest. He _is _very heroic."

"Yes, Annabeth, we get it. Your knight in shining armor. On with the book!" Clarisse rambled.

**Reyna studied him. "You're old for a recruit. You're what, sixteen?" "I think so," Percy said. "If you spent that many years on your own, without training or help, you should be dead. A son of Neptune? You'd have a powerful aura that would attract all kinds of monsters."**

Grover agreed, "Children of the big three have the strongest scents of all."

**"Yeah," Percy said. "I've been told that I smell."**

**Reyna almost cracked a smile, which gave Percy hope. Maybe she was human after all.**

"Like I said, we're not that cold hearted," Jason told them.

"Bro, no one said you weren't," Thailia told him.

**"You must've been somewhere before the Wolf House," she said. Percy shrugged. Juno had said something about him slumbering, and he did have a vague feeling that he'd been asleep—maybe for a long time. But that didn't make sense. Reyna sighed. "Well, the dogs haven't eaten you, so I suppose you're telling the truth." "Great," Percy said. "Next time, can I take a polygraph?"**

Annabeth snickered with the rest.

**Reyna stood. She paced in front of the banners. Her metal dogs watched her go back and forth. "Even if I accept that you're not an enemy," she said, "you're not a typical recruit. The Queen of Olympus simply doesn't appear at camp, announcing a new demigod. The last time a major god visited us in person like that…" She shook her head.**

"Well, Percy's a special guy," Annabeth said.

**"I've only heard legends about such things. And a son of Neptune…that's not a good omen. Especially now." "What's wrong with Neptune?" Percy asked. "And what do you mean, 'especially now'?" Hazel shot him a warning look. Reyna kept pacing. "You've fought Medusa's sisters, who haven't been seen in thousands of years. You've agitated our Lares, who are calling you a graecus. And you wear strange symbols—that shirt, the beads on your necklace. What do they mean?"**

"Oh, I got this!" Clovis exclaimed waking up for a minute. "The shirt's from Camp Half-Blood, and the necklace beads represent one year each with the picture of the most important event on it."

"We know, Clovis," chorused most of the camp.

**Percy looked down at his tattered orange T-shirt. It might have had words on it at one point, but they were too faded to read. He should have thrown the shirt away weeks ago. It was worn to shreds, but he couldn't bear to get rid of it. He just kept washing it in streams and water fountains as best he could and putting it back on. As for the necklace, the four clay beads were each decorated with a different symbol. One showed a trident. Another displayed a miniature Golden Fleece. The third was etched with the design of a maze, and the last had an image of a building— maybe the Empire State Building? — with names Percy didn't recognize engraved around it. The beads felt important, like pictures from a family album, but he couldn't remember what they meant.**

**"I don't know," he said. "And your sword?" Reyna asked. Percy checked his pocket. The pen had reappeared as it always did. He pulled it out, but then realized he'd never shown Reyna the sword. Hazel and Frank hadn't seen it either. How had Reyna known about it? Too late to pretend it didn't exist.… He uncapped the pen. Riptide sprang to full form. Hazel gasped. The greyhounds barked apprehensively.**

**"What is that?" Hazel asked. "I've never seen a sword like that."**

**"I have," Reyna said darkly. "It's very old—a Greek design. We used to have a few in the armory before…" She stopped herself.**

**"The metal is called Celestial bronze. It's deadly to monsters, like Imperial gold, but even rarer." **

**"Imperial gold?" Percy asked. Reyna unsheathed her dagger. Sure enough, the blade was gold. "The metal was consecrated in ancient times, at the Pantheon in Rome. Its existence was a closely guarded secret of the emperors—a way for their champions to slay monsters that threatened the empire. We used to have more weapons like this, but now…well, we scrape by. I use this dagger. Hazel has a spatha, a cavalry sword. Most legionnaires use a shorter sword called a gladius. But that weapon of yours is not Roman at all. It's another sign you're not a typical demigod. And your arm..."**

**"What about it?" Percy asked. Reyna held up her own forearm. Percy hadn't noticed before, but she had a tattoo on the inside: the letters SPQR, a crossed sword and torch, and under that, four parallel lines like score marks. Percy glanced at Hazel. **

**"We all have them," she confirmed, holding up her arm. "All full members of the legion do." Hazel's tattoo also had the letters SPQR, but she only had one score mark, and her emblem was different: a black glyph like a cross with curved arms and a head.**

"The symbol of Pluto," Annabeth supplied.

**Percy looked at his own arms. A few scrapes, some mud, and a fleck of Crispy Cheese 'n' Wiener, but no tattoos. **

**"So you've never been a member of the legion," Reyna said. "These marks can't be removed. I thought perhaps…" She shook her head, as if dismissing an idea.**

"So she does know him," Annabeth said confirming her thoughts_. But from where?_

**Hazel leaned forward. "If he's survived as a loner all this time, maybe he's seen Jason."**

**She turned to Percy. "Have you ever met a demigod like us before? A guy in a purple shirt, with marks on his arm—"**

**"Hazel." Reyna's voice tightened. "Percy's got enough to worry about." Percy touched the point of his sword and Riptide shrank back into a pen. "I haven't seen anyone like you guys before. Who's Jason?" Reyna gave Hazel an irritated look. "He is…he was my colleague." She waved her hand at the second empty chair. "The legion normally has two elected praetors. Jason Grace, son of Jupiter, was our other praetor until he disappeared last October."**

"October? But you came here in December when Percy disappeared," Annabeth said. Then she put two and two together. "It says he woke up two months ago, right?"

Jason checked in the front of the book. "Yeah, it says that," he said.

"So Hera put you to sleep," Annabeth said.

**Percy tried to calculate. He hadn't paid much attention to the calendar out in the wilderness, but Juno had mentioned that it was now June. "You mean he's been gone eight months, and you haven't replaced him?" "He might not be dead," Hazel said. "We haven't given up." Reyna grimaced.**

**Percy got the feeling this guy Jason might've been more to her than just a colleague.**

Piper and Jason both blushed while the Aphrodite cabin placed bets again. Piper was jealous of whoever this Reyna was because she knew Jason first. Jaosn was confused with his feelings for the two girls.

"He can pick up on hints?" asked Annabeth incredulously.

"Why did it take four years then?" questioned everyone else who had been there the whole time it took for the pair to get together.

**"Elections only happen in two ways," Reyna said. "Either the legion raises someone on a shield after a major success on the battlefield—and we haven't had any major battles—or we hold a ballot on the evening of June 24, at the Feast of Fortuna. That's in five days." Percy frowned. "You have a feast for tuna?"**

"Of course they do Percy! Let's Celebrate!" Travis and Conner were trying to convince him.

"Clarisse looked at them. "You're talking to a book."

**"Fortuna," Hazel corrected. "She's the goddess of luck. Whatever happens on her feast day can affect the entire rest of the year. She can grant the camp good luck…or really bad luck."**

**Reyna and Hazel both glanced at the empty display stand, as if thinking about what was missing. A chill went down Percy's back. "The Feast of Fortune…The gorgons mentioned that. So did Juno. They said the camp was going to be attacked on that day, something about a big bad goddess named Gaea, and an army, and Death being unleashed. You're telling me that day is this week?" **

"Well, that's not good," Clarisse said chuckling.

"No, really?" Thailia said sarcastically.

**Reyna's fingers tightened around the hilt of her dagger. "You will say nothing about that outside this room," she ordered. "I will not have you spreading more panic in the camp."**

**"So it's true," Percy said. "Do you know what's going to happen? Can we stop it?" Percy had just met these people. He wasn't sure he even liked Reyna. But he wanted to help. They were demigods, the same as him. They had the same enemies. Besides, Percy remembered what Juno had told him: it wasn't just this camp at risk. His old life, the gods, and the entire world might be destroyed. Whatever was coming down, it was huge.**

**"We've talked enough for now," Reyna said. "Hazel, take him to Temple Hill. Find Octavian. On the way you can answer Percy's questions. Tell him about the legion." "Yes, Reyna." Percy still had so many questions; his brain felt like it would melt. But Reyna made it clear the audience was over. She sheathed her dagger. The metal dogs stood and growled, inching toward Percy. "Good luck with the augury, Percy Jackson," she said. "If Octavian lets you live, perhaps we can compare notes…about your past."**

Jason looked up. "Who wants it?" He waved the book.

"I'll take it," Piper said from her seat next to him.

He passed her the book, and she began to read.

**Percy IV**, her voice commanded attention.


	5. Percy IV

**A/N- Hey! I just want to say thanks to all those who subscribed me and to KairacahraFlower Goddess who told me how to spell Thalia right! Thanks!**

**Percy IV**

**ON THE WAY OUT OF CAMP, Hazel bought him an espresso drink and a cherry muffin from Bombilo the two-headed coffee merchant.**

"Two headed," Grover muttered. "He could compete with Argus."

"Like you're one to talk," Clarrise muttered. "Hooves and horns."

**Percy inhaled the muffin. The coffee was great. Now, Percy thought, if he could just get a shower, a change of clothes, and some sleep, he'd be golden. Maybe even Imperial golden.**

"Aha ha," Travis laughed sounding pained. "Bad joke, Percy."

**He watched a bunch of kids in swimsuits and towels head into a building that had steam coming out of a row of chimneys. Laughter and watery sounds echoed from inside, like it was an indoor pool—Percy's kind of place.**

**"Bath house," Hazel said. "We'll get you in there before dinner, hopefully. You haven't lived until you've had a Roman bath." Percy sighed with anticipation.**

"Kelp Head and water," Thalia rolled her eyes.

**As they approached the front gate, the barracks got bigger and nicer. Even the ghosts looked better—with fancier armor and shinier auras. Percy tried to decipher the banners and symbols hanging in front of the buildings.**

**"You guys are divided into different cabins?" he asked.**

**"Sort of." Hazel ducked as a kid riding a giant eagle swooped overhead.**

**"We have five cohorts of about forty kids each. Each cohort is divided into barracks of ten—like roommates, kind of."**

**Percy had never been great at math,**

"Oh, you got that right!" Annabeth laughed.

**but he tried to multiply.**

**"You're telling me there's two hundred kids at camp?"**

**"Roughly."**

**"And all of them are children of the gods?**

"Didn't the Roman gods follow to the agreement?" Annabeth asked Chiron.

"I don't know, child. As I once said, I don't hear much from Lupa."

**The gods have been busy."**

The campers who understood the joke snickered .

**Hazel laughed. "Not all of them are children of major gods. There are hundreds of minor Roman gods. Plus, a lot of the campers are legacies—second or third generation. Maybe their parents were demigods. Or their grandparents."**

**Percy blinked. "Children of demigods?"**

Annabeth blinked, "What? Is that even possible?"

**"Why? Does that surprise you?"**

**Percy wasn't sure. The last few weeks he'd been so worried about surviving day to day. The idea of living long enough to be an adult and have kids of his own—that seemed like an impossible dream.**

"Looks like Percy's thinking on the same track as you, Annabeth," Thalia wiggled her eyebrows at her, suggestively.

**"These Legos—"**

"Legos," Leo snorted. "Totally calling them that when I get there."

**"Legacies," Hazel corrected.**

**"They have powers like a demigod?"**

**"Sometimes. Sometimes not. But they can be trained. All the best Roman generals and emperors—you know, they all claimed to be descended from gods. Most of the time, they were telling the truth. The camp augur we're going to meet, Octavian, he's a legacy, descendant of Apollo. He's got the gift of prophecy, supposedly."**

"Oh, really?" Rachel asked interested in her Roman counterpart.

**"Supposedly?"**

**Hazel made a sour face. "You'll see."**

**That didn't make Percy feel so great, if this dude Octavian had Percy's fate in his hands.**

**"So the divisions," he asked, "the cohorts, whatever—you're divided according to who your godly parent is?"**

"And thus, he remembers some things," Chris said holding his arms up as is showing something.

**Hazel stared at him. "What a horrible idea! No, the officers decide where to assign recruits. If we were divided according to god, the cohorts would be all uneven. I'd be alone."**

"That's true, being a daughter of Pluto," Thalia said sadly. Then she brightened. "She'll be glad once we get Nico in there!"

**Percy felt a twinge of sadness, like he'd been in that situation. "Why? What's your ancestry?"**

**Before she could answer, someone behind them yelled, "Wait!"**

**A ghost ran toward them—an old man with a medicine-ball belly and toga so long he kept tripping on it. He caught up to them and gasped for air, his purple aura flickering around him.**

**"This is him?" the ghost panted. "A new recruit for the Fifth, perhaps?"**

**"Vitellius," Hazel said, "we're sort of in a hurry."**

**The ghost scowled at Percy and walked around him, inspecting him like a used car. "I don't know," he grumbled. "We need only the best for the cohort. Does he have all his teeth? Can he fight? Does he clean stables?"**

"Oh!" Grover exclaimed. "Remember that time when-"

"Yeah!" Annabeth laughed, remembering the stables at Triple G Ranch. "He didn't smell though," she frowned.

**"Yes, yes, and no," Percy said.**

"Wrong," Annabeth snickered.

**"Who are you?"**

**"Percy, this is Vitellius." Hazel's expression said: Just humor him. "He's one of our Lares; takes an interest in new recruits."**

**On a nearby porch, other ghosts snickered as Vitellius paced back and forth, tripping over his toga and hiking up his sword belt.**

Many campers gagged. Bad mental image. What if it fell off?

**"Yes," Vitellius said, "back in Caesar's day—that's Julius Caesar, mind you—the Fifth Cohort was something! Twelfth Legion Fulminata, pride of Rome! But these days? Disgraceful what we've come to. Look at Hazel here, using a spatha.**

"What's wrong with that?" a camper asked.

**Ridiculous weapon for a Roman legionnaire—that's for cavalry! And you, boy—you smell like a Greek sewer.**

**Haven't you had a bath?"**

"Well, he's been a little busy fighting gorgons and trying to _stay alive," Annabeth said, her voice dripping in sarcasm._

**"I've been a little busy fighting gorgons," Percy said.**

"Freaky," Piper said.

"They're so tuned into each other," Piper explained.

**"Vitellius," Hazel interrupted, "we've got to get Percy's augury before he can join. Why don't you check on Frank? He's in the armory doing inventory. You know how much he values your help." The ghost's furry purple eyebrows shot up. "Mars Almighty! They let the probation check the armor? We'll be ruined!"**

**He stumbled off down the street, stopping every few feet to pick up his sword or rearrange his toga.**

**"O-h-h-kay," Percy said.**

**"Sorry," Hazel said. "He's eccentric, but he's one of the oldest Lares. Been around since the legion was founded."**

**"He called the legion…Fulminata?" Percy said.**

"Armed with lightning," Annabeth filled in.

"**'Armed with Lightning,'" Hazel translated. "That's our motto. The Twelfth Legion was around for the entire Roman Empire. When Rome fell, a lot of legions just disappeared. We went underground, acting on secret orders from Jupiter himself: stay alive, recruit demigods and their children, keep Rome going. We've been doing that ever since, moving around to wherever Roman influence was strongest. The last few centuries, we've been in America."**

**As bizarre as that sounded, Percy had no trouble believing it. In fact, it sounded familiar, like something he'd always known.**

**"And you're in the Fifth Cohort," he guessed, "which maybe isn't the most popular?"**

**Hazel scowled. "Yeah. I joined up last September."**

**"So…just a few weeks before that guy Jason disappeared."**

"Yeah," Jason decided. "She_ was_ one of my friends."

**Percy knew he'd hit a sore spot. Hazel looked down. She was silent long enough to count every paving stone.**

**"Come on," she said at last. "I'll show you my favorite view.**

**They stopped outside the main gates. The fort was situated on the highest point in the valley, so they could see pretty much everything.**

**The road led down to the river and divided. One path led south across a bridge, up to the hill with all the temples. The other road led north into the city, a miniature version of Ancient Rome. Unlike the military camp, the city looked chaotic and colorful, with buildings crowded together at haphazard angles. Even from this far away, Percy could see people gathered in the plaza, shoppers milling around an open-air market, parents with kids playing in the parks.**

**"You've got families here?" he asked.**

"Families?" Annabeth perked up.

**"In the city, absolutely," Hazel said. "When you're accepted into the legion, you do ten years of service. After that, you can muster out whenever you want. Most demigods go into the mortal world. But for some—well, it's pretty dangerous out there. This valley is a sanctuary. You can go to college in the city, get married, have kids, retire when you get old. It's the only safe place on earth for people like us. So yeah, a lot of veterans make their homes there, under the protection of the legion." Adult demigods. Demigods who could live without fear, get married, raise a family. Percy couldn't quite wrap his mind around that. It seemed too good to be true.**

The Aphrodite cabin stared at Annabeth so hard that she blushed just thinking about it.

It was a dream she wanted to make her reality.

**"But if this valley is attacked?"**

**Hazel pursed her lips. "We have defences. The borders are magical. But our strength isn't what it used to be. Lately, the monster attacks have been increasing. What you said about the gorgons not dying… we've noticed that too, with other monsters."**

"You know, this is sort of like the time my tree's powers were failing," Thailia said thoughtfully, remembering the story.

**"Do you know what's causing it?" Hazel looked away. Percy could tell that she was holding something back—something she wasn't supposed to say.**

**"It's—it's complicated," she said. "My brother says Death isn't—"**

"Her brother?" Jason asked confusedly. He didn't remember Hazel having a brother.

**She was interrupted by an elephant.**

"An elephant?" Travis and Conner questioned with mischievous smiles.

**Someone behind them shouted, "Make way!"**

**Hazel dragged Percy out of the road as a demigod rode past on a full-grown pachyderm covered in black Kevlar armor. The word elephant was printed on the side of his armor, which seemed a little obvious to Percy.**

"Duh," Clarisse rolled her eyes. "Honestly, these Romans need to get with the times."

Many people looked at her weirdly.

**The elephant thundered down the road and turned north, heading toward a big open field where some fortifications were under construction.**

**Percy spit dust out of his mouth.**

**"What the—?"**

**"Elephant," Hazel explained.**

**"Yeah, I read the sign. Why do you have an elephant in a bulletproof vest?"**

**"War games tonight," Hazel said. "That's Hannibal. If we didn't include him, he'd get upset."**

**"We can't have that."**

Campers laughed at that.

**Hazel laughed. It was hard to believe she'd looked so moody a moment ago. Percy wondered what she'd been about to say. She had a brother. Yet she had claimed she'd be alone if the camp sorted her by her godly parent.**

"Maybe her brother is mortal," suggested Annabeth.

**Percy couldn't figure her out. She seemed nice and easy going, mature for somebody who couldn't have been more than thirteen. But she also seemed to be hiding a deep sadness, like she felt guilty about something.**

_Why would she be guilty? _Jason wondered.

**Hazel pointed south across the river. Dark clouds were gathering over Temple Hill. Red flashes of lightning washed the monuments in blood-colored light. "Octavian is busy," Hazel said. "We'd better get over there."**

**On the way, they passed some goat-legged guys hanging out on the side of the road.**

**"Hazel!" one of them cried.**

**He trotted over with a big grin on his face. He wore a faded Hawaiian shirt and nothing for pants except thick brown goat fur. His massive Afro jiggled. His eyes were hidden behind little round rainbow tinted glasses. He held a cardboard sign that read: WILL WORK SING TALK GO AWAY FOR DENARII.**

Grover's jaw dropped.

**"Hi, Don," Hazel said. "Sorry, we don't have time—"**

**"Oh, that's cool! That's cool!" Don trotted along with them. "Hey, this guy's new!" He grinned at Percy. "Do you have three denarii for the bus? Because I left my wallet at home, and I've got to get to work, and—"**

**"Don," Hazel chided. "Fauns don't have wallets. Or jobs. Or homes. And we don't have buses."**

"What do you mean they don't have- any of those things?" Grover shouted.

**"Right," he said cheerfully, "but do you have denarii?"**

**"Your name is Don the Faun?" Percy asked.**

Some campers cracked up.

**"Yeah. So?"**

**"Nothing." Percy tried to keep a straight face. "Why don't fauns have jobs? Shouldn't they work for the camp?"**

**Don bleated. "Fauns! Work for the camp! Hilarious!" **

"_Well!_" Grover said, clearly offended.

**"Fauns are, um, free spirits," Hazel explained. "They hang out here because, well, it's a safe place to hang out and beg. We tolerate them, but—"**

Grover kept getting worse.

**"Oh, Hazel is awesome," Don said. "She's so nice! All the other campers are like, 'Go away, Don.' But she's like, 'Please go away, Don.' I love her!"**

"Does he have _any _self esteem?" Grover asked.

**The faun seemed harmless, but Percy still found him unsettling. He couldn't shake the feeling that fauns should be more than just homeless guys begging for denarii. Don looked at the ground in front of them and gasped. "Score!"**

**He reached for something, but Hazel screamed, "Don, no!"**

**She pushed him out of the way and snatched up a small shiny object. Percy caught a glimpse of it before Hazel slipped it into her pocket. He could have sworn it was a diamond.**

**"Come on, Hazel," Don complained. "I could've bought a year's worth of doughnuts with that!"**

"Yes, he needs it," Grover agreed.

**"Don, please," Hazel said. "Go away."**

**She sounded shaken, like she'd just saved Don from a charging bulletproof elephant.**

**The faun sighed. "Aw, I can't stay mad at you. But I swear, it's like you're good luck. Every time you walk by—"**

**"Good-bye, Don," Hazel said quickly.**

**"Let's go, Percy."**

**She started jogging. Percy had to sprint to catch up.**

**"What was that about?" Percy asked. "That diamond in the road—"**

**"Please," she said. "Don't ask."**

"Hmmm,"Annabeth wondered. _Pluto, riches, death._

**They walked in uneasy silence the rest of the way to Temple Hill. A crooked stone path led past a crazy assortment of tiny altars and massive domed vaults. Statues of gods seemed to follow Percy with their eyes.**

**Hazel pointed out the Temple of Bellona. "Goddess of war," she said. "That's Reyna's mom." Then they passed a massive red crypt decorated with human skulls on iron spikes.**

**"Please tell me we're not going in there," Percy said.**

**Hazel shook her head. "That's the Temple of Mars Ultor."**

**"Mars ... Ares, the war god?"**

**"That's his Greek name," Hazel said. "But, yeah, same guy. Ultor means 'the Avenger.' He's the second-most important god of Rome."**

**Percy wasn't thrilled to hear that. For some reason, just looking at the ugly red building made him feel angry.**

"Oh, yeah?" Clarisse questioned with a snarky expression. Then she smiled evilly. "Dad will be thrilled."

**He pointed toward the summit. Clouds swirled over the largest temple, a round pavilion with a ring of white columns supporting a domed roof. "I'm guessing that's Zeus—uh, I mean, Jupiter's? That's where we're heading?"**

**"Yeah." Hazel sounded edgy. "Octavian reads auguries there—the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus."**

**Percy had to think about it, but the Latin words clicked into English.**

**"Jupiter…the best and the greatest?"**

**"Right."**

**"What's Neptune's title?" Percy asked. "The coolest and most awesome?"**

**"Um, not quite." Hazel gestured to a small blue building the size of a tool shed. A cobweb-covered trident was nailed above the door.**

**Percy peeked inside. On a small altar sat a bowl with three dried-up, moldy apples.**

This raised eyebrows. Many felt bad.

**His heart sank. "Popular place."**

**"I'm sorry, Percy," Hazel said. "It's just…Romans were always scared of the sea. They only used ships if they had to. Even in modern times, having a child of Neptune around has always been a bad omen. The last time one joined the legion …well, it was 1906, when Camp Jupiter was located across the bay in San Francisco. There was this huge earthquake—"**

**"You're telling me a child of Neptune caused that?"**

**"So they say." Hazel looked apologetic.**

**"Anyway…Romans fear Neptune, but they don't love him much." Percy stared at the cobwebs on the trident. Great, he thought. Even if he joined the camp, he would never be loved. His best hope was to be scary to his new campmates. Maybe if he did really well, they'd give him some moldy apples.**

**Still…standing at Neptune's altar, he felt something stirring inside him, like waves rippling through his veins.**

"Blood of the sea," Malcom stated.

**He reached in his backpack and dug out the last bit of food from his trip—a stale bagel. It wasn't much, but he set it on the altar.**

**"Hey…uh, Dad." He felt pretty stupid talking to a bowl of fruit. "If you can hear me, help me out, okay? Give me my memory back. Tell me—tell me what to do."**

"See, he's human," said a compassionate young girl to her friend. "He needs guidance, too."

They had both heard of Percy's story and looked up to him like he was a savior sent to them. Indestructible and all that.

"I guess you're right," her friend nodded.

**His voice cracked. He hadn't meant to get emotional, but he was exhausted and scared, and he'd been lost for so long, he would've given anything for some guidance. He wanted to know something about his life for sure, without grabbing for missing memories.**

"Know how you feel, man," Jason nodded.

**Hazel put her hand on his shoulder.**

**"It'll be okay. You're here now. You're one of us." He felt awkward, depending on an eighth-grade girl he barely knew for comfort, but he was glad she was there.**

**Above them, thunder rumbled. Red lightning lit up the hill.**

**"Octavian's almost done," Hazel said.**

**"Let's go."**

**Compared to Neptune's tool shed, Jupiter's temple was definitely optimus and maximus. The marble floor was etched with fancy mosaics and Latin inscriptions. Sixty feet above, the domed ceiling sparkled gold. The whole temple was open to the wind.**

**In the center stood a marble altar, where a kid in a toga was doing some sort of ritual in front of a massive golden statue of the big dude himself: Jupiter the sky god, dressed in a silk XXXL purple toga, holding a lightning bolt.**

**"It doesn't look like that," Percy muttered.**

**"What?" Hazel asked. **

**"The master bolt," Percy said.**

"Oh my gods," Annabeth said eyes wide.

Thalia fist pumped. "He's remembering now!"

**"What are you talking about?"**

**"I—" Percy frowned. For a second, he'd thought he remembered something. Now it was gone. "Nothing, I guess."**

"But not much," Thalia set her arm to her side.

**The kid at the altar raised his hands. More red lightning flashed in the sky, shaking the temple. Then he put his hands down, and the rumbling stopped. The clouds turned from gray to white and broke apart. A pretty impressive trick, considering the kid didn't look like much. He was tall and skinny, with straw-colored hair, oversized jeans, a baggy T-shirt, and a drooping toga. He looked like a scarecrow wearing a bed sheet.**

Campers bursted out laughing, clutching their sides.

**"What's he doing?" Percy murmured.**

**The guy in the toga turned. He had a crooked smile and a slightly crazy look in his eyes, like he'd just been playing an intense video game. In one hand he held a knife. In the other hand was something like a dead animal. That didn't make him look any less crazy.**

"No, it wouldn't ," Piper said.

**"Percy," Hazel said, "this is Octavian."**

**"The graecus!" Octavian announced. "How interesting."**

**"Uh, hi," Percy said. "Are you killing small animals?"**

"Right to the point," Chris chuckled.

**Octavian looked at the fuzzy thing in his hand and laughed. "No, no. Once upon a time, yes. We used to read the will of the gods by examining animal guts—chickens, goats, that sort of thing. Nowadays, we use these."**

**He tossed the fuzzy thing to Percy. It was a disemboweled teddy bear.**

Rachel sighed in relief. "If it was real, I'd be all up on his case.

**Then Percy noticed that there was a whole pile of mutilated stuffed animals at the foot of Jupiter's statue.**

**"Seriously?" Percy asked.**

**Octavian stepped off the dais. He was probably about eighteen, but so skinny and sickly pale, he could've passed for younger.**

**At first he looked harmless, but as he got closer, Percy wasn't so sure. Octavian's eyes glittered with harsh curiosity, like he might gut Percy just as easily as a teddy bear if he thought he could learn something from it.**

**Octavian narrowed his eyes. "You seem nervous."**

**"You remind me of someone," Percy said. "I can't remember who."**

_Maybe Luke, _Thalia thought. _Pale, blond. _

**"Possibly my namesake, Octavian— Augustus Caesar. Everyone says I bear a remarkable resemblance."**

**Percy didn't think that was it, but he couldn't pin down the memory. "Why did you call me 'the Greek'?"**

**"I saw it in the auguries." Octavian waved his knife at the pile of stuffing on the altar. "The message said: The Greek has arrived. Or possibly: The goose has cried.**

"Great fortune telling," Rachel snorted.

**I'm thinking the first interpretation is correct. You seek to join the legion?"**

**Hazel spoke for him. She told Octavian everything that had happened since they met at the tunnel—the gorgons, the fight at the river, the appearance of Juno, their conversation with Reyna.**

**When she mentioned Juno, Octavian looked surprised.**

**"Juno," he mused. "We call her Juno Moneta. Juno the Warner. She appears in times of crisis, to counsel Rome about great threats."**

**He glanced at Percy, as if to say: like mysterious Greeks, for instance.**

"What does he have against Greeks?" Annabeth asked, offended.

"Well," Jason started, "there's the old fued-"

"Yeah," Annabeth cut him off. "Can you keep reading, Piper?" she waved her on.

**"I hear the Feast of Fortuna is this week," Percy said. "The gorgons warned there'd be an invasion on that day. Did you see that in your stuffing?"**

**"Sadly, no." Octavian sighed. "The will of the gods is hard to discern. And these days, my vision is even darker."**

**"Don't you have…I don't know," Percy said, "an oracle or something?"**

"Oh, yeah!" Rachel said, proudly. "I represent!"

**"An oracle!" Octavian smiled. "What a cute idea. No, I'm afraid we're fresh out of oracles.**

"Uh!" Rachel let out a huff. She turned. "I don't like him, Jason. Sorry."

"I don't think I like him either," Jason said.

**Now, if we'd gone questing for the Sibylline books, like I recommended—"**

**"The Siba-what?" Percy asked.**

**"Books of prophecy," Hazel said, "which Octavian is obsessed with. Romans used to consult them when disasters happened. Most people believe they burned up when Rome fell."**

**"Some people believe that," Octavian corrected. "Unfortunately our present leadership won't authorize a quest to look for them—"**

**"Because Reyna isn't stupid," Hazel said. "—so we have only a few remaining scraps from the books," Octavian continued.**

**"A few mysterious predictions, like these." He nodded to the inscriptions on the marble floor. Percy stared at the lines of words, not really expecting to understand them. He almost choked.**

**"That one." He pointed, translating as he read aloud: "Seven half-bloods shall answer the call. To storm or fire the world must fall—"**

"Oh, so that's where you recognized it," Piper said, understanding.

**"Yes, yes." Octavian finished it without looking: "An oath to keep with a final breath and foes bear arms to the Doors of Death."**

**"I—I know that one." Percy thought thunder was shaking the temple again. Then he realized his whole body was trembling. "That's important."**

**Octavian arched an eyebrow. "Of course it's important. We call it the Prophecy of Seven, but it's several thousand years old. We don't know what it means. Every time someone tries to interpret it…Well, Hazel can tell you. Bad things happen."**

"Travis's eyebrows furrowed. "Why is he singling out Hazel?"

**Hazel glared at him. "Just read the augury for Percy. Can he join the legion or not?"**

**Percy could almost see Octavian's mind working, calculating whether or not Percy would be useful. He held out his hand for Percy's backpack. "That's a beautiful specimen. May I?"**

**Percy didn't understand what he meant, but Octavian snatched the Bargain Mart panda pillow that was sticking out of the top of his pack. It was just a silly stuffed toy, but Percy had carried it a long way. He was kind of fond of it.**

**Octavian turned toward the altar and raised his knife.**

**"Hey!" Percy protested.**

**Octavian slashed open the panda's belly and poured its stuffing over the altar.**

"No!" Clovis sounded upset. "Pillows are our friends!"

**He tossed the panda carcass aside, muttered a few words over the fluff, and turned with a big smile on his face. "Good news!" he said. "Percy may join the legion. We'll assign him a cohort at evening muster. Tell Reyna that I approve."**

**Hazel's shoulders relaxed. "Uh…great. Come on, Percy."**

**"Oh, and Hazel," Octavian said. "I'm happy to welcome Percy into the legion. But when the election for praetor comes up, I hope you'll remember—"**

**"Jason isn't dead," Hazel snapped. "You're the augur. You're supposed to be looking for him!"**

**"Oh, I am!" Octavian pointed at the pile of gutted stuffed animals.**

"Why do I get the feeling he's lying?" Jason asked no one in particular.

**"I consult the gods every day! Alas, after eight months, I've found nothing. Of course, I'm still looking. But if Jason doesn't return by the Feast of Fortuna, we must act. We can't have a power vacuum any longer. I hope you'll support me for praetor. It would mean so much to me."**

**Hazel clenched her fists. "Me. Support. You?"**

"I wouldn't," most of the camp said.

**Octavian took off his toga, setting it and his knife on the altar. Percy noticed seven lines on Octavian's arm—seven years of camp, Percy guessed. Octavian's mark was a harp, the symbol of Apollo.**

**"After all," Octavian told Hazel, "I might be able to help you. It would be a shame if those awful rumors about you kept circulating…or, gods forbid, if they turned out to be true."**

**Percy slipped his hand into his pocket and grabbed his pen. This guy was blackmailing Hazel. That was obvious. One sign from Hazel, and Percy was ready to bust out Riptide and see how Octavian liked being at the other end of a blade.**

**Hazel took a deep breath. Her knuckles were white. "I'll think about it."**

**"Excellent," Octavian said. "By the way, your brother is here."**

"Well, I guess her brother isn't mortal," Annabeth ruled out. "But why wouldn't he stay there?"

**Hazel stiffened. "My brother? Why?" Octavian shrugged. "Why does your brother do anything? He's waiting for you at your father's shrine. Just…ah, don't invite him to stay too long. He has a disturbing effect on the others. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to keep searching for our poor lost friend, Jason. Nice to meet you, Percy."**

**Hazel stormed out of the pavilion, and Percy followed. He was sure he'd never been so glad to leave a temple in his life. As Hazel marched down the hill, she cursed in Latin. Percy didn't understand all of it, but he got son of a gorgon, power hungry snake, and a few choice suggestions about where Octavian could stick his knife.**

"Heh heh heh," the Stolls and Leo snickered.

**"I hate that guy," she muttered in English. "If I had my way—"**

**"He won't really get elected praetor, will he?" Percy asked.**

"I hope not. That would mess the whole of Juno's plan. I'm supposed to rise in the ranks here and he there," Jason said.

**"I wish I could be certain. Octavian has a lot of friends, most of them bought. The rest of the campers are afraid of him."**

**"Afraid of that skinny little guy?"**

**"Don't underestimate him. Reyna's not so bad by herself, but if Octavian shares her power…" Hazel shuddered. "Let's go see my brother. He'll want to meet you."**

**Percy didn't argue. He wanted to meet this mysterious brother, maybe learn something about Hazel's background— who her dad was, what secret she was hiding. Percy couldn't believe she'd done anything to be guilty about. She seemed too nice. But Octavian had acted like he had some first-class dirt on her.**

**Hazel led Percy to a black crypt built into the side of the hill. Standing in front was a teenage boy in black jeans and an aviator jacket.**

"That sounds like…" Annabeth shared a look with Thalia.

**"Hey," Hazel called. "I've brought a friend."**

**The boy turned. Percy had another one of those weird flashes: like this was somebody he should know.**

**The kid was almost as pale as Octavian, but with dark eyes and messy black hair. He didn't look anything like Hazel. He wore a silver skull ring, a chain for a belt, and a black T-shirt with skull designs. At his side hung a pure-black sword.**

"That's Nico!" Grover said, shocked.

"The son of Hades?" Piper asked? "OH, her brother. I get it."

**For a microsecond when he saw Percy, the boy seemed shocked—panicked even, like he'd been caught in a searchlight.**

"Well, he should," Annabeth said. "We were the ones who told him he was a demigod in the first place!"

**"This is Percy Jackson," Hazel said. "He's a good guy. Percy, this is my brother, the son of Pluto."**

"Hades, " Annabeth corrected.

**The boy regained his composure and held out his hand. "Pleased to meet you," he said. "I'm Nico Di Angelo."**

There was a silence.

"I CAN"T BELIEVE HIM!" Annabeth shouted.

He knew all this time? He could have helped them find Percy. Though… he couldn't. Things needed to play out the way they were now in order for the world to survive.

_But still…_

"I want to read next," Leo said bouncing and grabbing the book. He took it and sat back down with a wicked grin on his face.

"All right," Chiron said. "But just one more chapter tonight, and we'll continue tomorrow."

"Okay!" Leo announced.

**Hazel V**, he read in dramatic voice.


	6. Hazel V

**A/N-So here it is! Chapter 5/6 whichever according to the navigation and book! Enjoy!**

"Okay!" Leo announced.

**Hazel V**, he read in dramatic voice.

**HAZEL FELT LIKE SHE'D JUST INTRODUCED two nuclear bombs. Now she was waiting to see which one exploded first.**

Annabeth laughed at Hazel's observation. "She doesn't know how right she is!"

Thalia was laughing along until se stopped ad thought for a minute. "Am _I _a nucleur bomb?" she asked looking at Jason.

Jason shrugged mystified. "I don't know."

**Until that morning, her brother Nico had been the most powerful demigod she knew.**

**The others at Camp Jupiter saw him as a travelling oddball,**

"OH, totally," Thalia agreed. "He could be bipolar. Happy one moment and then sulking the next."

**about as harmless as the fauns.**

"Harmless, no," Annabeth said with a raised eyebrow. "I've seen him fight."

**Hazel knew better. She hadn't grown up with Nico, hadn't even known him very long. But she knew Nico was more dangerous than Reyna, or Octavian, or maybe even Jason.**

"Greeks get really cool powers," Jason said smiling.

**Then she'd met Percy.**

"Hey!" Jason protested. Then thought better of it. "Actually, he wins. He has more uses. And it is _really _cool."

**At first, when she saw him stumbling up the highway with the old lady in his arms, Hazel had thought he might be a god in disguise.**

"Is he really that powerful?" Piper asked Annabeth.

"Oh, yeah," she nodded. "He was offered immortality once, after the war, but he refused," she blushed after that last part with a goofy grin on her face.

Jason nodded, already hearing this story. Piper and Leo, however, never heard of this ending. Their jaws dropped. About a million questions were waiting in their brains to be fired off, but Annabeth waved Leo to read on.

**Even though he was beat up, dirty, and stooped with exhaustion, he'd had an aura of power. He had the good looks of a Roman god, with sea-green eyes and windblown black hair.**

Annabeth's hand tightened around her dagger's grip in jealousy.

**She'd ordered Frank not to fire on, him. She thought the gods might be testing them. She'd heard myths like that: a kid with an old lady begs for shelter, and when the rude mortals refuse—boom, they get turned into banana slugs.**

"She's a smart one," Clarisse noted.

Many people stared at her. "Did you just give out a compliment?" Thalia asked.

"NO!" Clarisse blushed. "I-I'm just saying that that would have been good in battle, you know? Easier to thwart you enemy."

"Okay, whatever helps you sleep at night," Travis snickered.

**Then Percy had controlled the river and destroyed the gorgons. He'd turned a pen into a bronze sword. He'd stirred up the whole camp with talk about the graecus.**

"He really does make an impression," Jason commented. "I don't know if that's a good or bad thing."

**A son of the sea god...**

"Leo, why are you talking like that?" Piper asked, irritated.

"Like what?" Leo asked innocently.

"All dramatic," Piper said. "It's getting a tad bit annoying for some of us."

"Man, be serious please," Jason said trying to hide his laughter.

"Why? I'm not bothering anybody," Leo scoffed.

"Yes, you are," the camp replied.

"Fine," Leo grumbled and went back to the book in his hands.

**Long ago, Hazel had been told that a descendant of Neptune would save her.**

"Save her?"

**But could Percy really take away her curse?**

"Oh."

"So she's cursed."

"Wonder what's her baggage."

**It seemed too much to hope for. Percy and Nico shook hands. They studied each other warily, and Hazel fought the urge to run. If these two busted out the magic swords, things could get ugly.**

No one denied it.

**Nico didn't appear scary. He was skinny and sloppy in his rumpled black clothes. His hair, as always, looked like he'd just rolled out of bed.**

**Hazel remembered when she'd met him. The first time she'd seen him draw that black sword of his, she'd almost laughed. The way he called it "Stygian iron," all serious-like—he'd looked ridiculous.**

**This scrawny white boy was no fighter.**

"You'd be surprised," Conner said. "One time, we put this gadget we ordered from-I mean, had the Hephestus cabin make us, on his ring and when it squirted his face with permanent blue paint he came after us and we had to suffer at his blackmail," he winced.

"Never should have taught him that," Travis grumbled.

The campers looked at the Stolls wearily. The Hephestus cabin didn't make _anything _for the Stolls. That would be a nightmare. So where did they get it from?

**She certainly hadn't believed they were related. She had changed her mind about that quick enough.**

**Percy scowled. "I—I know you."**

**Nico raised his eyebrows. "Do you?" He looked at Hazel for explanation.**

**Hazel hesitated. Something about her brother's reaction wasn't right. He was trying hard to act casual, but when he had first seen Percy, Hazel had noticed his momentary look of panic. Nico already knew Percy. She was sure of it. Why was he pretending otherwise?**

"She catches on fast," Annabeth commented.

**Hazel forced herself to speak. "Um…Percy's lost his memory." She told her brother what had happened since Percy had arrived at the gates.**

**"So, Nico…" she continued carefully, "I thought…you know, you travel all over. Maybe you've met demigods like Percy before, or..."**

"Does she mean Greek demigods?" asked Thalia, "because she doesn't know yet."

"We know," Clarisse grunted. "Gods, you could be as thick-headed as Prissy sometimes."

Thalia glared at her.

**Nico's expression turned as dark as Tartarus. Hazel didn't understand why, but she got the message: Drop it.**

**"This story about Gaia's army," Nico said. "You warned Reyna?"**

**Percy nodded. "Who is Gaia, anyway?"**

"Snow White," Leo said, "but not the princess and she's evil."

**Hazel's mouth went dry. Just hearing that name…It was all she could do to keep her knees from buckling. She remembered a woman's soft sleepy voice, a glowing cave, and feeling her lungs fill with black oil.**

Eyebrows were raised. Had she encountered Gaia before?"

**"She's the earth goddess." Nico glanced at the ground as if it might be listening. "The oldest goddess of all. She's in a deep sleep most of the time, but she hates the gods and their children."**

**"Mother Earth…is evil?" Percy asked.**

"Yes," chorused the camp.

**"Very," Nico said gravely. "She convinced her son, the Titan Kronos—um, I mean, Saturn—to kill his dad, Uranus, and take over the world. The Titans ruled for a long time. Then the Titans' children, the Olympian gods, overthrew them."**

**"That story seems familiar," Percy sounded surprised, like an old memory had partially surfaced. "But I don't think I ever heard the part about Gaea."**

**Nico shrugged. "She got mad when the gods took over. She took a new husband— Tartarus, the spirit of the abyss—and gave birth to a race of giants. They tried to destroy Mount Olympus, but the gods finally beat them. At least…the first time."**

**"The first time?" Percy repeated.**

**Nico glanced at Hazel. He probably wasn't meaning to make her feel guilty, but she couldn't help it. If Percy knew the truth about her, and the horrible things she'd done…**

Every person was on the edge of their seats.

**"Last summer," Nico continued, "Saturn tried to make a comeback.**

"Saturn?"

That's Kronos," Jason answered.

"Oh."

**There was a second Titan war. The Romans at Camp Jupiter stormed his headquarters on Mount Othrys, across the bay, and destroyed his throne. Saturn disappeared—"**

"He didn't disappear; he was defeated by us!" the campers who fought on the war protested.

**He hesitated, watching Percy's face. Hazel got the feeling her brother was nervous that more of Percy's memory might come back.**

**"Um, anyway," Nico continued, "Saturn probably faded back to the abyss.**

"The gods hope that he's spread so thin that he can't be hosted in any other form ever again," Annabeth stated.

**We all thought the war was over. Now it looks like the Titans' defeat stirred up Gaea. She's starting to wake. I've heard reports of giants being reborn. If they mean to challenge the gods again, they'll probably start by destroying the demigods.…"**

**"You've told Reyna this?" Percy asked.**

**"Of course," Nico's jaw tensed. "The Romans don't trust me. That's why I was hoping she'd listen to you. Children of Pluto…well, no offense, but they think we're even worse than children of Neptune. We're bad luck."**

"Well, no, they're not bad luck," Thalia explained. "More like they just have the worst luck. That is ever possible. Percy, specifically."

**"They let Hazel stay here," Percy noted.**

**"That's different," Nico said.**

**"Why?"**

**"Percy," Hazel cut in, "look, the giants aren't the worst problem. Even ... even Gaea isn't the worst problem. The thing you noticed about the gorgons, how they wouldn't die, that's our biggest worry."**

**"If the monsters don't die, her army will be stronger than ever," Nico pointed out.**

"And we could never defeat them," Annabeth said. "That's why we need to close the Doors of Death."

**She looked at Nico. She was getting dangerously close to her own secret now, but for some reason Hazel trusted Percy.**

"He's easy to trust. Especially since he's trust_worthy_," said Grover.

**Maybe because he was also an outsider, maybe because he'd saved Frank at the river. He deserved to know what they were facing.**

"More than anybody, since he's involved," Thalia spoke.

**"Nico and I," she said carefully, "we think that what's happening is…Death isn't—" Before she could finish, a shout came from down the hill.**

**Frank jogged toward them, wearing his jeans, purple camp shirt, and denim jacket. His hands were covered with grease from cleaning weapons.**

**As it did every time she saw Frank, Hazel's heart performed a little skip-beat tap-dance**

"She's got a crush!" called out Lacy from the Aphrodite cabin. "That's _so _cute! And it's an _older guy_!"

—**which really irritated her.**

"Oh," Lacy frowned.

**Sure, he was a good friend—one of the only people at camp who didn't treat her as if she had a contagious disease. But she didn't like him in that way.**

**He was three years older than she was, and he wasn't exactly Prince Charming, with that strange combination of baby face and bulky wrestler's body. He looked like a cuddly koala bear with muscles. The fact that everyone always tried to pair them, up—the two biggest losers at camp! You guys are perfect for each other—just made Hazel more determined not to like him.**

"You shouldn't listen to what other girls say. Follow your heart," Piper tried to tell her.

Jason and Leo looked at her oddly.

"Oh, gods, I sound like my mom," she grumbled, irritated with herself.

**But her heart wasn't with the program. It went nuts whenever Frank was around. She hadn't felt like that since ... well, since Sammy.**

**Stop it, she thought. You're here for one reason—and it isn't to get a new boyfriend.**

"So she had a boyfriend named Sammy," Lacy noted on a clipboard.

Mitchell said beside her, "What does writing this down have to help with anything?"

"It's fun to mess with people's love lives," she explained.

**Besides, Frank didn't know her secret. If he knew, he wouldn't be so nice to her.**

"I want to know her secret!" Travis whined.

"Baby!" Katie huffed, blowing a strand of hair away from her face.

**He reached the shrine. "Hey, Nico…"**

**"Frank." Nico smiled. He seemed to find Frank amusing, maybe because Frank was the only one at camp who wasn't uneasy around the children of Pluto.**

**"Reyna sent me to get Percy," Frank said. "Did Octavian accept you?"**

**"Yeah," Percy said. "He slaughtered my panda."**

"**He…Oh. The augury? Yeah, teddy bears must have nightmares about that guy.**

"I know I will," Clovis said to himself.

**But you're in! We need to get you cleaned up before evening muster."**

**Hazel realized the sun was getting low over the hills. How had the day gone so fast? **

**"You're right," she said. "We'd better—"**

**"Frank," Nico interrupted, "why don't you take Percy down? Hazel and I will be along soon."**

**Uh-oh, Hazel thought. She tried not to look anxious.**

"Why would she be anxious? This is Nico, not some school teacher," Piper wondered out loud.

**"That's—that's a good idea," she managed. "Go ahead, guys. We'll catch up."**

**Percy looked at Nico one more time, as though he was still trying to place a memory. "I'd like to talk with you some more. I can't shake the feeling—"**

**"Sure," Nico agreed. "Later. I'll be staying overnight."**

**"You will?" Hazel blurted. The campers were going to love that—the son of Neptune and the son of Pluto arriving on the same day. Now all they needed was some black cats and broken mirrors.**

Some campers cracked up. The little ones were mimicking Hazel.

**"Go on, Percy," Nico said. "Settle in."**

**He turned to Hazel, and she got the sense that the worst part of her day was yet to come. "My sister and I need to talk."**

**"You know him, don't you," Hazel said.**

"Yes," Annabeth, Thalia, Grover, the Stolls, and some others said.

**They sat on the roof of Pluto's shrine, which was covered with bones and diamonds. As far as Hazel knew, the bones had always been there. The diamonds were her fault.**

"Oh, like the one Don saw on the pathway!" Leo pointed out.

Annabeth stared at him. "You might be right about that," she sounded surprised.

**If she sat anywhere too long, or just got anxious, they started popping up all around her like mushrooms after a rain. Several million dollars' worth of stones glittered on the roof, but fortunately the other campers wouldn't touch them. They knew better than to steal from temples—especially Pluto's—and the fauns never came up here.**

**Hazel shuddered, remembering her close call with Don that afternoon. If she hadn't moved quickly and snatched that diamond off the road…She didn't want to think about it. She didn't need another death on her conscience.**

"Another death?" Jason and Thalia said at the same time.

Annabeth was in deep concentration, trying to put the pieces together.

**Nico swung his feet like a little kid. His Stygian iron sword lay by his side, next to Hazel's spatha. He gazed across the valley, where construction crews were working in the Field of Mars, building fortifications for tonight's games.**

**"Percy Jackson." He said the name like an incantation.**

"Nico always did look up to Percy- as an older brother, someone he could talk to, anything," Annabeth said.

**"Hazel, I have to be careful what I say. Important things are at work here. Some secrets need to stay secret. You of all people—you should understand that."**

**Hazel's cheeks felt hot. "But he's not like…like me?"**

"What does that mean?" Piper asked curiously.

**"No," Nico said. "I'm sorry I can't tell you more. I can't interfere. Percy has to find his own way at this camp."**

Annabeth nodded sadly.

**"Is he dangerous?" she asked.**

**Nico managed a dry smile. "Very. To his enemies. But he's not a threat to Camp Jupiter. You can trust him."**

**"Like I trust you," Hazel said bitterly.**

"So, does she?" Travis asked Katie.

Katie sgook her head like _How-did-I-get-stuck-with-this-idiot?._

"Listen, Travis," was all she said to him.

**Nico twisted his skull ring. Around him, bones began to quiver as if they were trying to form a new skeleton. Whenever he got moody, Nico had that effect on the dead, kind of like Hazel's curse. Between them, they represented Pluto's two spheres of control: death and riches. Sometimes Hazel thought Nico had gotten the better end of the deal.**

**"Look, I know this is hard," Nico said. "But you have a second chance. You can make things right."**

**"Nothing about this is right," Hazel said. "If they find out the truth about me—"**

**"They won't," Nico promised. "They'll call a quest soon. They have to. You'll make me proud.**

"He says it like he's her dad or something." Thalia said smiling.

**Trust me, Bi—"**

Thalia winced having known Bianca herself. She also knew what it was like to lose a sibling.

Annabeth and Grover felt sorry for Nico.

**He caught himself, but Hazel knew what he'd almost called her: Bianca. Nico's real sister—the one he'd grown up with.**

"Nico had another sister?" Piper asked.

"Yeah," Annabeth said. "She was a hunter of Artemis and left Nico here at camp with us. She died on a quest she went on with Percy, Thalia,Grover, and their last leuitenant, Zoe, to save the goddess when she was kidnapped," she finished.

"And to save me, I guess," she put in as an afterthought.

**Nico might care about Hazel, but she'd never be Bianca. Hazel was the simply the next best thing Nico could manage—a consolation prize from the Underworld. **

**"I'm sorry," he said.**

**Hazel's mouth tasted like metal, as if gold nuggets were popping up under her tongue. "Then it's true about Death? Is Alcyoneus to blame?"**

"The giant meant to replace Hades," Malcom supplied.

**"I think so," Nico said. "It's getting bad in the Underworld. Dad's going crazy trying to keep things under control. From what Percy said about the gorgons, things are getting worse up here, too. But look, that's why you're here. All that stuff in your past—you can make something good come out of it. You belong at Camp Jupiter."**

**That sounded so ridiculous, Hazel almost laughed. She didn't belong in this place. She didn't even belong in this century.**

"Oh," some campers said understanding.

**She should have known better than to focus on the past, but she remembered the day when her old life had been shattered.**

**The blackout hit her so suddenly, she didn't even have time to say, Uh-oh. She shifted back in time. Not a dream or a vision. The memory washed over her with such perfect clarity, she felt she was actually there.**

**Her most recent birthday. She'd just turned thirteen. But not last December— December 17, 1941, the last day she had lived in New Orleans.**

"That's it," Leo said. "Who's next?"

"I guess I'll read," Grover said, coming over to take the book.

"Tommorow, Grover," Chiron said. "you can read the first chapter during lunch. Rght now, everyone needs a good night's rest."

"That sounds fair- I think," Leo said holding out the book for the centaur.

He trotted over , picked up the book, and made sure the campers went to the correct cabins before he went back to the big house for the night.


	7. Hazel VI

**A/N- Hiya! I just wanted to say hey, and that my weekends are pretty booked up- ha! Booked! Get it? Fanfiction? Book? –anyway, so I wouldn't let you guys expect anything on the weekends really! Sorry! Oh well, here's the next chapter! On with the story!**

The night's sleep was restless for Annabeth. She could not stop thinking about Pecy- not that she ever stopped, but still, this was a whole books worth of his thoughts about right now. She clung to his words desperately, as if they were a life raft.

_Ha ha, _she thought sourly_. Life Raft, son of Poseidon. _

So she rushed to breakfast and ate with her siblings as usual. Chiron came out from the big house and ate, too.

She looked around the mess hall. She could see campers whispering, probably about the events of the night before or the Argo II. Her eyes fixed on her cabin mates. They looked as if they wanted to discuss the same matters, but were too afraid with Annabeth there.

Finally, Chiron came around and spoke, "I have decided, that in the completion of the Argo II-"

"WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" the Hephestus cabin cheered.

"Yes, yes," Chiron waved to settle them down, "that we read for the mornings, then the afternoons are for activities, and also read at the campfire. So on that happy note, Grover, I believe it's your turn to read."

"Yes, sir," Grover stood up and trotted over to Chiron's table to get the book.

**Hazel VI**, Grover read in a steady voice.

The camp leaned in, some spilling their cereal onto their laps.

**HAZEL WAS WALKING HOME ALONE from the riding stables. Despite the cold evening, she was buzzing** **with warmth. Sammy had just kissed her on the cheek.**

"Awww!" that was the Aphrodite cabin.

"Wait, I thought she liked Frank." Mitchell said in confusion.

"Oh," Lacy said. Then she squealed, "A love triangle!"

**The day had been full of ups and downs. Kids at school had teased her about her mother, calling her a witch and a lot of other names.** **That had been going on for a long time, of course, but it was getting worse. Rumors were spreading about Hazel's curse. The school was called St. Agnes Academy for Colored Children and Indians, a name that hadn't changed in a hundred years. Just like its name, the place masked a whole lot of cruelty under a thin veneer of kindness.**

"The life of a demigod is never easy," Chiron sighed sadly as the demigods shook their heads mournfully.

**Hazel didn't understand how other black kids could be so mean. They should've known better, since they themselves had to put up with name-calling all the time. But they yelled at her and stole her lunch, always asking for those famous jewels: "Where's those cursed diamonds, girl? Gimme some or I'll hurt you!" They pushed her away at the water fountain, and threw rocks at her if she tried to approach them on the playground. **

"That's awful," Piper said in shock.

**Despite how horrible they were, Hazel never gave them diamonds or gold. She didn't hate anyone that much. Besides, she had one friend—Sammy—and that was enough. **

**Sammy liked to joke that he was the perfect St. Agnes student. He was Mexican American, so he considered himself colored and Indian. "They should give me a double scholarship," he said.**

Some of the campers laughed.

"Hey, he sounds like you, Leo," Thalia said. "Lame jokes and everything."

"Why, thank you," Leo said full of himself.

_She so wants me_, he thought.

**He wasn't big or strong, but he had a crazy smile and he made Hazel laugh.**

**That afternoon he'd taken her to the stables where he worked as a groom. It was a "whites only" riding club, of course, but it was closed on weekdays, and with the war on, there was talk that the club might have to shut down completely until the Japanese were whipped and the soldiers came back home. Sammy could usually sneak Hazel in to help take care of the horses. Once in a while they'd go riding.**

"Ah, Travis!" Conner said in excitement. "We could sneak in and take some horses. Then we can join the Party Ponies!"

"You will not!" Annabeth thundered. She turned to Thalia who sat at the Zues table with Jason. Sure she should be at the Artemis table, but then Jason would be the only one sitting there, and that wasn't much fun. "Can you imagine what would happen if they did?" she asked.

Thalia's face was one of absolute horror. "Don't put that picture in my head, Annabeth, " she said totally serious.

**Hazel loved horses. They seemed to be the only living things that weren't scared of her. People hated her. Cats hissed. Dogs growled. Even the stupid hamster in Miss Finley's classroom squeaked in terror when she gave it a carrot. But horses didn't mind.**

"That's funny," Grover interrupted himself. "Horses _hate_ Nico."

**When she was in the saddle, she could ride so fast that there was no chance of gemstones cropping up in her wake. She almost felt free of her curse.**

"And that is…" Leo pushed.

**That afternoon, she'd taken out a tan roan stallion with a gorgeous black mane. She galloped into the** **fields so swiftly, she left Sammy behind. By the time he caught up, he and his horse were both winded.**

**"What are you running from?" He laughed. "I'm not that ugly, am I?"**

"That settles it," Piper said. Jason snickered when she did this. "He is so like you. You'd have to be, like, like related or-or something to get that idiocy of yours into your bloodstream!"

"It's not idiocy if I like it!" Leo replied.

Piper, Annabeth, and Thalia face palmed.

**It was too cold for a picnic, but they had one anyway, sitting under a magnolia tree with the horses tethered to a split-rail fence. Sammy had brought her a cupcake with a birthday candle, which had gotten smashed on the ride but was still the sweetest thing Hazel had ever seen. They broke it in half and shared it.**

Annabeth was painfully reminded of Percy's last birthday. She winced.

**Sammy talked about the war. He wished he were old enough to go. He asked Hazel if she would write him letters if he were a soldier going overseas.**

**"'Course, dummy," she said.**

**He grinned. Then, as if moved by a sudden impulse, he lurched forward and kissed her on the cheek. "Happy birthday, Hazel."**

"Aww!" courtesy of the Aphrodite cabin.

**It wasn't much. Just one kiss, and not even on the lips. But Hazel felt like she was floating.**

"I feel that way when I get a new pillow," Clovis said dreamily.

**Some of the campers shoShe hardly remembered the ride back to the stables, or telling Sammy goodbye. He said, "See you tomorrow," like he always did. But she would never see him again.**

"Why?" Jason asked.

**By the time she got back to the French Quarter, it was getting dark. As she approached home, her warm** **feeling faded, replaced by dread.**

**Hazel and her mother—Queen Marie,** **she liked to be called—lived in an old apartment above a jazz club. Despite the beginning of the war, there was a festive mood in the air. New recruits would roam the streets, laughing and talking about fighting the Japanese. They'd get tattoos in the parlors or propose to their sweethearts right on the sidewalk. Some would go upstairs to Hazel's mother to have their fortunes read or to buy charms from Marie Levesque, the famous grisgris queen.**

"Gris Gris?" Leo asked stupefied. "What does that mean?"

Piper thought about it, tilting her head to the side. "Well, in French it means grey, but I don't think that's what she means, here."

"It's probably some stupid thing for fortune telling," Clarisse waved it off impatiently. "Let's get on with it," she said as an Athena camper was about to argue.

**"Did you hear?" one would say. "Two bits for this good-luck charm. I took it to a guy I know, and he says it's a real silver nugget. Worth twenty dollars! That voodoo woman is crazy!"**

**For a while, that kind of talk brought Queen Marie a lot of business. Hazel's curse had started out slowly. At first it seemed like a blessing. The precious stones and gold only appeared once in a while, never in huge quantities. Queen Marie paid her bills. They ate steak for dinner once a week. Hazel even got a new dress. But then stories started spreading. The locals began to realize how many horrible things happened to people who bought those good-luck charms or got paid with Queen Marie's treasure. Charlie Gasceaux lost his arm in a harvester while wearing a gold bracelet.** **Mr. Henry at the general store dropped dead from a heart attack after Queen Marie settled her tab with a ruby.** **Folks started whispering about Hazel—how she could find cursed jewels just by walking down the street. These days only out-of-towners came to visit her mother, and not so many of them, either. Hazel's mom had become short-tempered. She gave Hazel resentful looks.**

"That's terrible," Jason said, sorry for his friend for having a curse like that.

"So is that the curse?" Leo asked dumbly.

"Yes, Leo, "Jason said. "Yes, it is."

**Hazel climbed the stairs as quietly as she could, in case her mother had a customer. In the club downstairs, the band was tuning their instruments. The bakery next door had started making beignets for tomorrow morning, filling the stairwell with the smell of melting butter.**

**When she got to the top, Hazel thought she heard two voices inside the apartment. But when she peeked into the parlor, her mother was sitting alone at the séance table, her eyes closed, as if in a trance. Hazel had seen her that way many times, pretending to talk to spirits for her clients—but not ever when she was by herself. Queen Marie had always told Hazel her gris-gris was "bunk and hokum." She didn't really believe in charms or fortune telling or ghosts. She was just a performer, like a singer or an actress, doing a show for money.**

**But Hazel knew her mother did believe in some magic. Hazel's curse wasn't hokum. Queen Marie just didn't want to think it was her fault—that somehow she had made Hazel the way she was.**

**"It was your blasted father," Queen Marie would grumble in her darker moods. "Coming here in his fancy silver-and black suit. The one time I actually summon a spirit, and what do I get? Fulfills my wish and ruins my life. I should've been a real queen. It's his fault you turned out this way."**

"I think it was more like she wished for riches and cursed her daughter," Annabeth amended with crossed arms.

**She would never explain what she meant, and Hazel had learned not to ask about her father. It just made her mother angrier.**

"We all get that way once in a while," Jake Mason agreed, and all of the demigods who had known what caused the Titan War bowed their heads.

**As Hazel watched, Queen Marie muttered something to herself. Her face was calm and relaxed. Hazel was struck by how beautiful she looked, without her scowl and the creases in her brow. She had a lush mane of gold-brown hair like Hazel's, and the same dark complexion, brown as a roasted coffee bean. She wasn't wearing the fancy saffron robes or gold bangles she wore to impress clients—just a simple white dress. Still, she had a regal air, sitting straight and dignified in her gilded chair as if she really were a queen.**

**"You'll be safe there," she murmured. "Far from the gods."**

"Safe where?" some murmured.

"Far from the gods?" others questioned.

**Hazel stifled a scream. The voice coming from her mother's mouth wasn't hers. It sounded like an older woman's. The tone was soft and soothing, but also commanding— like a hypnotist giving orders.**

"Probably Gaia," Annabeth grimaced the same time Jason, Leo, and Piper said, "Gaia."

"She was stirring that far back?" Lacy squeaked covering he mouth and widening her fearful eyes.

**Queen Marie tensed. She grimaced in her trance, then spoke in her normal voice: "It's too far. Too cold. Too dangerous. He told me not to."**

"She's communicating with her!" Grover's mouth dropped.

**The other voice responded: "What has he ever done for you? He gave you a poisoned child! But we can use her gift for good. We can strike back at the gods. You will be under my protection in the north, far from the gods' domain. I'll make my son your protector. You'll live like a queen at last."**

"Her son…," Annabeth trailed off.

"Don't listen to her!" Leo called out. "She's evil!"

Piper gave Nyssa a pleading look. She shrugged and smacked him on the arm.

"Hey!" Leo complained.

"Leo, this was a few decades ago," Piper explained. "And your talking to a book. She's not going to hear you."

"So?"

Piper rolled her eyes at his antics and waved Grover to read on.

**Queen Marie winced. "But what about Hazel…"**

"Well, it's a good thing she still cares," Thalia commented.

**Then her face contorted in a sneer. Both voices spoke in unison, as if they'd found something to agree on: "A poisoned child."**

"Thalia grimaced, "Maybe not."

**Hazel fled down the stairs, her pulse racing.**

**At the bottom, she ran into a man in a dark suit. He gripped her shoulders with strong, cold fingers.**

**"Easy, child," the man said.**

**Hazel noticed the silver skull ring on his finger, then the strange fabric of his suit. In the shadows, the solid black wool seemed to shift and boil, forming images of faces in agony, as if lost souls were trying to escape from the folds of his clothes.**

"Want to guess who that is?" Thalia scoffed.

**His tie was black with platinum stripes. His shirt was tombstone gray. His face—Hazel's heart nearly leaped out of her throat. His skin was so white it looked almost blue, like cold milk. He had a flap of greasy black hair. His smile was kind enough, but his eyes were fiery and angry, full of mad power.**

"It's got to be Hades," Annabeth said. "Or Pluto," she frowned. "Hades dresses in robes. I've never even heard of him owning a suit."

**Hazel had seen that look in the newsreels at the movie theater. This man looked like that awful Adolf Hitler. He had no mustache, but otherwise he could've been Hitler's twin—or his father.**

"It's his father," Malcom nodded.

Many of the campers shuddered when the realization hit them. Nico and Hazel were cool, But _Adolf Hitler_ was _not._

**Hazel tried to pull away. Even when the man let go, she couldn't seem to move. His eyes froze her in place.**

**"Hazel Levesque," he said in a melancholy voice. "You've grown."**

**Hazel started to tremble. At the base of the stairs, the cement stoop cracked under the man's feet. A glittering stone popped up from the concrete like the earth had spit out a watermelon seed. The man looked at it, unsurprised. He bent down.**

**"Don't!" Hazel cried. "It's cursed!"**

**He picked up the stone—a perfectly formed emerald. "Yes, it is. But not to me. So beautiful…worth more than this building, I imagine." He slipped the emerald in his pocket. "I'm sorry for your fate, child. I imagine you hate me."**

**Hazel didn't understand. The man sounded sad, as if he were personally responsible for her life. Then the truth hither: a spirit in silver and black, who'd fulfilled her mother's wishes and ruined her life.**

**Her eyes widened. "You? You're my…"**

**He cupped his hand under her chin. "I am Pluto. Life is never easy for my children, but you have a special burden. Now that you're thirteen, we must make provisions—"**

**She pushed his hand away.**

**"You did this to me?" she demanded. "You cursed me and my mother? You left us alone?"**

"It's ancient law," Annabeth said sadly. "Though, now, because of the agreement, we've gotten to see them more before they shut down Olympus," she finished quietly.

**Her eyes stung with tears. This rich white man in a fine suit was her father? Now that she was thirteen, he showed up for the first time and said he was sorry?**

**"You're evil!" she shouted. "You ruined our lives!"**

**Pluto's eyes narrowed. "What has your mother told you, Hazel? Has she never explained her wish? Or told you why you were born under a curse?"**

**Hazel was too angry to speak, but Pluto seemed to read the answers in her face.**

**"No…" He sighed. "I suppose she wouldn't. Much easier to blame me."**

**"What do you mean?"**

**Pluto sighed. "Poor child. You were born too soon. I cannot see your future clearly, but someday you will find your place. A descendant of Neptune will wash away your curse and give you peace.**

"Funny," Annabeth said. "It's known that Hades ignores Zeus and Poseidon and all the other gods for that matter." She smirked.

**I fear, though, that is not for many years.…"**

"Yeah, like the next century."

**Hazel didn't follow any of that. Before she could respond, Pluto held out his hand. A sketchpad and a box of colored pencils appeared in his palm.**

**"I understand you enjoy art and horseback riding," he said. "These are for your art. As for the horse…" His eyes gleamed. "That, you'll have to manage yourself. Now I must speak with your mother. Happy birthday, Hazel."**

"Awwwww," the Stolls groaned. "We wanna know when her birthday is. We could have sent her something!"

"I don't think anyone wants one of your prank gifts, Stoll," Katie told them with a sneer.

They threw cheerios at her.

She was lucky she ducked Connor's bowl. It was filled with milk.

**He turned and headed up the stairs—just like that, as if he'd checked Hazel off his "to do" list and had already forgotten her.**_** Happy birthday. Go draw a picture. See you in another thirteen years.**_

"Ooooh!"

"Harsh!"

Courtesy of the Stoll brothers.

Katie rolled her eyes and huffed annoyed.

**She was so stunned, so angry, so upside-down confused that she just stood paralyzed at the base of the steps. She wanted to throw down the colored pencils and stomp on them. She wanted to charge after Pluto and kick him. She wanted to run away, find Sammy, steal a horse, leave town and never come back. But she didn't do any of those things.**

**Above her, the apartment door opened, and Pluto stepped inside.**

**Hazel was still shivering from his cold touch, but she crept up the stairs to see what he would do. What would he say to Queen Marie?**

**Who would speak back—Hazel's mother, or that awful voice?**

**When she reached the doorway, Hazel heard arguing. She peeked in. Her mother seemed back to normal—screaming and angry, throwing things around the parlor while Pluto tried to reason with her.**

"I sort of feel bad for Hades, "Grover admitted. "I mean, from what Percy told me, it seems that all of Hades's romances go wrong, one way or another."

**"Marie, it's insanity," he said. "You'll be far beyond my power to protect you."**

**"Protect me?" Queen Marie yelled. "When have you ever protected me?"**

"They _do _watch over us," Jason nodded.

**Pluto's dark suit shimmered, as if the souls trapped in the fabric were getting agitated.**

**"You have no idea," he said. "I've kept you alive, you and the child. My enemies are everywhere among gods and men. Now with the war on, it will only get worse. You must stay where I can—"**

**"The police think I'm a murderer!" Queen Marie shouted. "My clients want to hang me as a witch! And Hazel—her curse is getting worse. Your protection is killing us."**

**Pluto spread his hands in a pleading gesture. "Marie, please—"**

**"No!" Queen Marie turned to the closet, pulled out a leather valise, and threw it on the table. "We're leaving," she announced. "You can keep your protection. We're going north."**

"Alaska," Chiron informed the demigods, "is the only place that the gods cannot reach."

**"Marie, it's a trap," Pluto warned. "Whoever's whispering in your ear, whoever's turning you against me—"**

**"You turned me against you!" She picked up a porcelain vase and threw it at him. It shattered on the floor, and precious stones spilled everywhere—emeralds, rubies, diamonds. Hazel's entire collection.**

**"You won't survive," Pluto said. "If you go north, you'll both die. I can foresee that clearly."**

"But she was brought back," one of the Stolls said.

"Conner, I don't think that's the point," Annabeth shook her head.

**"Get out!" she said.**

**Hazel wished Pluto would stay and argue. Whatever her mother was talking about, Hazel didn't like it. But her father slashed his hand across the air and dissolved into shadows…like he really was a spirit.**

"It's because he's a _god_," some random camper said. "He can do stuff like that."

**Queen Marie closed her eyes. She took a deep breath. Hazel was afraid the strange voice might possess her again. But when she spoke, she was her regular self.**

**Trembling, Hazel obeyed. She clutched the sketchpad and colored pencils to her chest.**

**Her mother studied her like she was a bitter disappointment. A poisoned child, the voices had said.**

**"Pack a bag," she ordered. "We're moving."**

**"Wh-where?" Hazel asked.**

**"Alaska," Queen Marie answered. "You're going to make yourself useful. We're going to start a new life."**

**The way her mother said that, it sounded as if they were going to create a "new life" for someone else—or something else.**

**"What did Pluto mean?" Hazel asked. "Is he really my father? He said you made a wish—"**

**"Go to your room!" her mother shouted. "Pack!" Hazel fled, and suddenly she was ripped out of the past.**

**Nico was shaking her shoulders. "You did it again."**

The campers were startled. They had gotten lost in the past, as Hazel did, and forgot all about this.

**Hazel blinked. They were still sitting on the roof of Pluto's shrine. The sun was lower in the sky. More diamonds had surfaced around her, and her eyes stung from crying.**

**"S-sorry," she murmured.**

**"Don't be," Nico said. "Where were you?"**

**"My mother's apartment. The day we moved."**

**Nico nodded. He understood her history better than most people could. He was also a kid from the 1940s.**

"Wha-a-at!" Leo asked gaping.

**He'd been born only a few years after Hazel, and had been locked away in a magic hotel for decades.**

"Huh," Leo narrowed his eyes.

"Lotus Hotel and Casino," Annabeth and Grover grumbled. "More like a prison."

**But Hazel's past was much worse than Nico's. She'd caused so much damage and misery.…**

**"You have to work on controlling those memories," Nico warned. "If a flashback like that happens when you're in combat—"**

"That's not good," Clarisse shook her head. "She'll die if that happens."

**"I know," she said. "I'm trying."**

**Nico squeezed her hand. "It's okay. I think it's a side effect from…you know, your time in the Underworld. Hopefully it'll get easier."**

**Hazel wasn't so sure. After eight months, the blackouts seemed to be getting worse, as if her soul were attempting to live in two different time periods at once. No one had ever come back from the dead before— at least, not the way she had. Nico was trying to reassure her, but neither of them knew what would happen.**

**"I can't go north again," Hazel said. "Nico, if I have to go back to where it happened—"**

**Hazel remembered what Pluto told her long ago: **_**A descendant of Neptune will wash away your curse and give you peace.**_

**Was Percy the one?**

Usually when Annabeth heard this she would go into her jealousy mode in an instant, bt she knew Hazel had no affections for Percy other than just friends. And besides, form what they've read, she liked Frank- or Sammy. One of them.

**Maybe, but Hazel sensed it wouldn't be so easy. She wasn't sure even Percy could survive what was waiting in the north.**

_Please, _Annabeth gave a silent prayer_, let him live!_

**"Where did he come from?" she asked. "Why do the ghosts call him the Greek?"**

"Oh! That's because-"

"We know Leo!" Piper, Jason, Thalia, Annabeth, Katie, Clarisse, and a few others drones.

"Gods, isn't it too early in the morning for this?" Leo whined.

"No," they droned again.

**Before Nico could respond, horns blew across the river. The legionnaires were gathering for evening muster.**

**"We'd better get down there," Nico said. "I have a feeling tonight's war games are going to be interesting."**

"You bet it is," Grover finished. "Who wants to read next?"


	8. Hazel VII

**A/N-I always forget to do this. Disclaimer: I do NOT own Percy Jackson or any of the Heroes of Olympus-Rick Riordan does. On with the story!**

"I want it, I want it I want it!" Travis Stoll shouted punching his hand in the air.

The camp gasped.

"Travis Stoll can r_ead_?"

Travis blushed. "Yeah, I can. I just choose not to. But _this, _you know," he looked over at Conner, "the _blackmail opportunity."_

Connor laughed evily.

"Just read," Thalia rolled her eyes. "Before I shoot an arrow at you."

**Hazel VII**, Travis read loudly.

**ON THE WAY BACK, HAZEL TRIPPED OVER A GOLD BAR.**

**She should have known not to run so fast, but she was afraid of being late for muster. The Fifth Cohort had the nicest centurions in camp. Still, even they would have to punish her if she was tardy. Roman punishments were harsh: scrubbing the streets with a toothbrush, cleaning the bull pens at the coliseum, getting sewn inside a sack full of angry weasels and dumped into the Little Tiber—the options were not great.**

"Harsh," Leo winced.

"Like, really harsh," Travis and Conner said together.

**The gold bar popped out of the ground just in time for her foot to hit it. Nico tried to catch her, but she took a spill and scraped her hands.**

"Ouch."

**"You okay?" Nico knelt next to her and reached for the bar of gold.**

Annabeth wasn't sure what effect this would have on Nico, being the son of Hades, but she yelled, "Don't!"

**"Don't!" Hazel warned.**

**Nico froze. "Right. Sorry. It's just…jeez. That thing is huge." He pulled a flask of nectar from his aviator jacket and poured a little on Hazel's hands. Immediately the cuts started to heal. "Can you stand?"**

**He helped her up. They both stared at the gold. It was the size of a bread loaf, stamped with a serial number and the words U.S. treasury.**

**Nico shook his head. "How in Tartarus—?"**

**"I don't know," Hazel said miserably. "It could've been buried there by robbers or dropped off a wagon a hundred years ago. Maybe it migrated from the nearest bank vault. Whatever's in the ground, anywhere close to me—it just pops up. And the more valuable it is—"**

**"The more dangerous it is." **

"That's really bad," said Leo.

"Yeah, we know," Piper looked at him.

**Nico frowned. "Should we cover it up? If the fauns find it…"**

"They're not _that _desperate. Jason, are they?" Grover asked.

Jason just grimaced and didn't need to answer for Grover to know.

**Hazel imagined a mushroom cloud billowing up from the road, char-broiled fauns tossed in every direction. It was too horrible to consider. "It should sink back underground after I leave, eventually, but just to be sure…"**

**She'd been practicing this trick, but never with something so heavy and dense. She pointed at the gold bar and tried to concentrate.**

**The gold levitated. She channeled her anger, which wasn't hard—she hated that gold, she hated her curse, she hated thinking about her past and all the ways she'd failed. Her fingers tingled. The gold bar glowed with heat.**

"What is she trying to do?" Chris asked with furrowed eyebrows.

**Nico gulped. "Um, Hazel, are you sure…?"**

**She made a fist. The gold bent like putty.**

"Whoa!"

"That's soe serious power!" Leo said in excitement.

**Hazel forced it to twist into a giant, lumpy ring. Then she flicked her hand toward the ground. Her million-dollar doughnut slammed into the earth. It sank so deep, nothing was left but a scar of fresh dirt.**

"That is so cool!" Leo was now basically jumping like a little kid. Nyssa had to force him back into his seat. She waved Travis on.

**Nico's eyes widened. "That was…terrifying."**

"Yeah, pretty much," Annabeth nodded.

**Hazel didn't think it was so impressive compared to the powers of a guy who could reanimate skeletons and bring people back from the dead, but it felt good to surprise him for a change.**

**Inside the camp, horns blew again. The cohorts would be starting roll call, and Hazel had no desire to be sewn into a sack of weasels.**

"I don't think any of us has that desire," Chiron spoke up. "Do we, children?"

The campers all shook their heads feverishly.

"Mr. D might," Thalia whispered to Jason.

Jason, who had heard the tales of who Mr. D really was, tried to hide his laughter.

**"Hurry!" she told Nico, and they ran for the gates.**

**The first time Hazel had seen the legion assemble, she'd been so intimidated, she'd almost slunk back to the barracks to hide. Even after being at camp for nine months, she still found it an impressive sight.**

"Must leave an impression, then," Annabeth said.

Jason nodded, "It really did."

**The first four cohorts, each forty kids strong, stood in rows in front of their barracks on either side of the Via Praetoria. The Fifth Cohort assembled at the very end, in front of the principia, since their barracks were tucked in the back corner of camp next to the stables and the latrines. Hazel had to run right down the middle of the legion to reach her place.**

**The campers were dressed for war. Their polished chain mail and greaves gleamed over purple T-shirts and jeans. Sword-and-skull designs decorated their helmets. Even their leather combat boots looked ferocious with their iron cleats, great for marching through mud or stomping on faces.**

"Great!" Clarisse said giving a wicked smile that scared the others. "I want a pair!"

**In front of the legionnaires, like a line of giant dominoes, stood their red and gold shields, each the size of a refrigerator door. Every legionnaire carried a harpoon like spear called a pilum, a gladius, a dagger, and about a hundred pounds of other equipment. If you were out of shape when you came to the legion, you didn't stay that way for long. Just walking around in your armor was a full-body workout.**

**Hazel and Nico jogged down the street as everyone was coming to attention, so their entrance was really obvious.**

"Aw, they have the worst luck, then." Conner laughed. "Good thing my dad's the god of stealth."

"No one's luck is worse than Kelp Head's," Thalia put in. "You should know that. Right Annabeth?"

"Oh, yeah. It's really bad!" She laughed.

**Their footsteps echoed on the stones. Hazel tried to avoid eye contact, but she caught Octavian at the head of the First Cohort smirking at her, looking smug in his plumed centurion's helmet with a dozen medals pinned on his chest.**

"Wonder how he bribed Reyna to get them," Jason said nastily.

**Hazel was still seething from his blackmail threats earlier. Stupid augur and his gift of prophecy—of all the people at camp to discover her secrets, why did it have to be him? She was sure he would have told on her weeks ago, except that he knew her secrets were worth more to him as leverage. She wished she'd kept that bar of gold so she could hit him in the face with it.**

"She's got to be extremely furious to do that," Piper said sympathetically.

"I was going to say insane," Leo spoke.

Nyssa wacked him on the back of his head.

"Ow! You know what I said about wanting a sister who could beat me up? I take it back!"

**She ran past Reyna, who was cantering back and forth on her pegasus Scipio—nicknamed Skippy because he was the color of peanut butter. The metal dogs Aurum and Argentum trotted at her side. Her purple officer's cape billowed behind her.**

"That makes it sound like the medieval times," Conner said.

"Shut up!" the camp said tiredly.

**"Hazel Levesque," she called, "so glad you could join us."**

**Hazel knew better than to respond. She was missing most of her equipment, but she hurried to her place in line next to Frank and stood at attention. Their lead centurion, a big seventeen-year-old guy named Dakota, was just calling her name—the last one on the roll.**

**"Present!" she squeaked.**

**Thank the gods. Technically, she wasn't late.**

**Nico joined Percy Jackson, who was standing off to one side with a couple of guards. Percy's hair was wet from the baths. He'd put on fresh clothes, but he still looked uncomfortable. Hazel couldn't blame him. He was about to be introduced to two hundred heavily armed kids.**

"It's probably the setting, you know with the feeling of enemy territory and all. Two hundred armed kids wouldn't scare him," Annabeth said.

**The Lares were the last ones to fall in. Their purple forms flickered as they jockeyed for places. They had an annoying habit of standing halfway inside living people, so that the ranks looked like a blurry photograph, but finally the centurions got them sorted out.**

**Octavian shouted, "Colors!"**

**The standard-bearers stepped forward. They wore lion-skin capes and held poles decorated with each cohort's emblems. The last to present his standard was Jacob, the legion's eagle bearer. He held a long pole with absolutely nothing on top.**

"Why isn't there anything on top?" Piper asked curiously.

**The job was supposed to be a big honor, but Jacob obviously hated it. Even though Reyna insisted on following tradition, every time the eagle less pole was raised, Hazel could feel embarrassment rippling through the legion.**

"Oh, I remember. They lost it," Jason said quietly.

**Reyna brought her pegasus to a halt.**

**"Romans!" she announced. "You've probably heard about the incursion today. Two gorgons were swept into the river by this newcomer, Percy Jackson. Juno herself guided him here, and proclaimed him a son of Neptune."**

**The kids in the back rows craned their necks to see Percy. He raised his hand and said, "Hi."**

"Causual day's work!" Leo laughed.

**"He seeks to join the legion," Reyna continued. "What do the auguries say?"**

**"I have read the entrails!" Octavian announced, as if he'd killed a lion with his bare hands rather than ripping up a stuffed panda pillow.**

"PFFFfchh! Hahaha!" the campers laughed at his obvious failure. Octavian could probably _never _kill a lion with his bare hands. He'd be mauled first. Not that they'd try, of course, but they've all had enough of his cruel ways to gain power.

**"The auguries are favorable. He is qualified to serve!"**

**The campers gave a shout: "Ave!" Hail!**

**Frank was a little late with his "Ave," so it came out as a high-pitched echo. The other legionnaires snickered.**

"That awkward moment," Travis sniffed happily. "There's always one."

"Oh, the good ole' days when that used to be Percy," Conner pretended to wipe away a tear.

Then they burst out laughing, clutching their sides.

Some of the younger campers were awed that Percy had started out just like them.

When Travis was over his laughing fit, he continued to read.

**Reyna motioned the senior officers forward—one from each cohort. Octavian, as the most senior centurion, turned to Percy.**

**"Recruit," he asked, "do you have credentials? Letters of reference?"**

"You need letters of reference in the Roman camp?" Thalia asked, tilting her head. "How'd you get in?" she asked Jason.

Jason shrugged, "Well, I was two years old, and Hera brought me. I don't remember much."

"But Hera brought Percy, and he's being asked for letters," Thalia asked.

""But the Romans think Poseidon and Hades are bad luck," Piper reminded them. "Not the warmest welcome for him."

"Hmmmmm," The children of Zeus/Jupiter hummed in harmony.

**Hazel remembered this from her own arrival. A lot of kids brought letters from older demigods in the outside world, adults who were veterans of the camp. Some recruits had rich and famous sponsors. Some were third- or fourth-generation campers. A good letter could get you a position in the better cohorts, sometimes even special jobs like legion messenger, which made you exempt from the grunt work like digging ditches or conjugating Latin verbs.**

"It's not fair to get special treatment like that," Rachel said, "just because you know somebody."

"I totally agree," Piper said. "What if they actually _wanted_ to do some of those things?"

**Percy shifted. "Letters? Um, no."**

**Octavian wrinkled his nose.**

_**Unfair**_**! Hazel wanted to shout. Percy had carried a goddess into camp. What better recommendation could you want?**

"Exactly!" Annabeth shouted waving her arms. "Just accept him so we can take care of the problem with Gaia!"

_She's lost it, _went through the minds of the Athena campers as they stared at their usually calm and collected head counselor.

**But Octavian's family had been sending kids to camp for over a century. He loved reminding recruits that they were less important than he was.**

"Jerk," Lacy sneered.

**"No letters," Octavian said regretfully. "Will any legionnaires stand for him?"**

**"I will!" Frank stepped forward. "He saved my life!"**

**Immediately there were shouts of protest from the other cohorts. Reyna raised her hand for quiet and glared at Frank.**

**"Frank Zhang," she said, "For the second time today, I remind you that you are on probatio. Your godly parent has not even claimed you yet. **

"Are the Romans not abiding by the agreement?" Annabeth asked, thinking back to the promise the gods made on the River Styx.

"It's customary for the Roman gods to claim their children before or on their child's sixteenth birthday, Annabeth," Chiron explained.

**You're not eligible to stand for another camper until you've earned your first stripe."**

**Frank looked like he might die of embarrassment.**

**Hazel couldn't leave him hanging.**

"Good. Friends should stand up for each other," Lacy said.

**She stepped out of line and said, "What Frank means is that Percy saved both our lives. I am a full member of the legion. I will stand for Percy Jackson."**

**Frank glanced at her gratefully, but the other campers started to mutter. Hazel was barely eligible. She'd only gotten her stripe a few weeks ago, and the "act of valor" that earned it for her had been mostly an accident. Besides, she was a daughter of Pluto, and a member of the disgraced Fifth Cohort. **

"Disgraced?"

**She wasn't doing Percy much of a favor by giving him her support.**

"Oh, you don't know how much that means, Hazel," Annabeth said thankfully with her hands folded by her cheek and a smile that showed all of her worry, sadness, and the bags under her eyes from losing sleep.

The Athena kids stared. More of the camp joined in.

**Reyna wrinkled her nose, but she turned to Octavian. The augur smiled and shrugged, like the idea amused him.**

_**Why not?**_** Hazel thought. Putting Percy in the Fifth would make him less of a threat, and Octavian liked to keep all his enemies in one place.**

"Like he needs another enemy," Annabeth said.

Thalia snorted with laughter.

**"Very well," Reyna announced. "Hazel Levesque, you may stand for the recruit. Does your cohort accept him?"**

**The other cohorts started coughing, trying not to laugh. Hazel knew what they were thinking**_**: Another loser for the Fifth.**_

"You'll be surprised when that kid you're calling a loser kicks those giants back to Tartarus," Clarisse saidsmirking.

The campers stared. She was acting weird. Giving out compliments and all.

"Back to reading," Travis said slowly.

**Frank pounded his shield against the ground. The other members of the Fifth followed his lead, though they didn't seem very excited. Their centurions, Dakota and Gwen, exchanged pained looks, like: **_**Here we go again.**_

**"My cohort has spoken," Dakota said. "We accept the recruit."**

"Dakota," Jason said. "Isn't he the one that…." _Kool-Aid?_

**Reyna looked at Percy with pity. "Congratulations, Percy Jackson. You stand on probatio. You will be given a tablet with your name and cohort. In one year's time or as soon as you complete an act of valor, you will become a full member of the Twelfth Legion Fulminata. Serve Rome, obey the rules of the legion, and defend the camp with honor. Senatus Populusque Romanus!"**

**The rest of the legion echoed the cheer.**

**Reyna wheeled her pegasus away from Percy, like she was glad to be done with him. Skippy spread his beautiful wings. Hazel couldn't help feeling a pang of envy. She'd give anything for a horse like that, but it would never happen. Horses were for officers only, or barbarian cavalry, not for Roman legionnaires.**

"Hey, Hazel should come here!" Leo said. "She would love the pegasus we have in the stables!"

**"Centurions," Reyna said, "you and your troops have one hour for dinner. Then we will meet on the Field of Mars. The First and Second Cohorts will defend. The Third, Fourth, and Fifth will attack. Good fortune!"**

"What is she talking about?" Annabeth asked.

"War games, I think," Jason answered.

**A bigger cheer went up—for the war games and for dinner. The cohorts broke ranks and ran for the mess hall.**

**Hazel waved at Percy, who made his way through the crowd with Nico at his side. To Hazel's surprise, Nico was beaming at her.**

**"Good job, Sis," he said. "That took guts, standing for him."**

**He had never called her Sis before. She wondered if that was what he had called Bianca. **

At the same time, Annabeth and Thalia said:

"Yeah, she was a good hunter."

"I never really met her, so, I don't know."

**One of the guards had given Percy his probation name plate. Percy strung it on his leather necklace with the strange beads.**

"Good," Annabeth nodded. "He still has that."

**"Thanks, Hazel," he said. "Um, what exactly does it mean—you're standing for me?"**

**"I guarantee your good behavior," Hazel explained. "I teach you the rules, answer your questions, make sure you don't disgrace the legion."**

**"And…if I do something wrong?"**

**"Then I get killed along with you," **

"WHAT!" courtesy of Annabeth.

**Hazel said. "Hungry? Let's eat."**

Despite the tension, Travis and Conner snickered. Leo followed their lead.

"She sure does know how to change the subject," Travis calmed down. "Conner, you read," Travis shoved the book in his arms.

"Okay!" Conner announced. **Hazel VIII**...


	9. Author's Note

**A/N-Hi guys! I'm sorry to say that for most of next week I'll be on vacation for my winter break. The place I'm going probably won't have wifi though. So I won't be able to update. Sorry. I'll try to work on something though, and maybe I'll be quick to post next week. Thanks! I'm so sorry! Bye for now!**


	10. Hazel VIII

**A/N-Okay, guys. I got back a while ago, and I know this is super late. I'm so sorry! So here it goes. **

"Okay!" Conner announced.** Hazel VIII.**

**AT LEAST THE CAMP FOOD WAS GOOD. Invisible wind spirits—aurae—waited on the campers and seemed to know exactly what everyone wanted. They blew plates and cups around so quickly, the mess hall looked like a delicious hurricane. If you got up too fast, you were likely to get beamed by beans or potted by a pot roast.**

**Hazel got shrimp gumbo—her favorite comfort food. It made her think about being a little girl in New Orleans, before her curse set in and her mom got so bitter. Percy got a cheeseburger and a strange looking soda that was bright blue. Hazel didn't understand that, but Percy tried it and grinned.**

Annabeth burst out laughing and Thalia was smiling like a Cheshire cat.

"What?" Piper asked.

Leo spoke, "I don't get it."

"He likes the color blue," Annabeth explained. "His mom makes everything in it-birthday cakes, cookies, smothies-you name it."

**"This makes me happy," he said. "I don't know why…but it does." Just for a moment, one of the aurae became visible—an elfin girl in a white silk dress. She giggled as she topped off Percy's glass, then disappeared in a gust.**

Annabeth felt a pinch of annoyance. Percy was too good looking for his own good. Then again it might help in some situations. When she thought of how the gorgons were momentarily dazed she cringed and almost barfed in her mouth from disgust.

**The mess hall seemed especially noisy tonight. Laughter echoed off the walls. War banners rustled from cedar ceiling beams as aurae blew back and forth, keeping everyone's plates full. The campers dined Roman style, sitting on couches around low tables. Kids were constantly getting up and trading places, spreading rumors about who liked whom and all the other gossip.**

"Whoa, that's way different from what we have here," Conner interrupted himself. "Chiron-"

"No, child," Chiron explained patiently. "This is how your parents wanted it."

Conner huffed. "Fine." He continued to read.

**As usual, the Fifth Cohort took the place of least honor. Their tables were at the back of the dining hall next to the kitchen. Hazel's table was always the least crowded. Tonight it was she and Frank, as usual, with Percy and Nico and their centurion Dakota, who sat there, Hazel figured, because he felt obligated to welcome the new recruit.**

**Dakota reclined glumly on his couch, mixing sugar into his drink and chugging it. He was a beefy guy with curly black hair and eyes that didn't quite line up straight, so Hazel felt like the world was leaning whenever she looked at him. It wasn't a good sign that he was drinking so much so early in the night.**

"When is it ever," Chiron said reminded of the party ponies, but was also saddened by his absent training partner, Dionysus, a.k.a. Mr. D.

**"So." He burped, waving his goblet. "Welcome to the Percy, party." He frowned. "Party, Percy. Whatever."**

Travis was laughing so hard he was hugging his sides and fell over his brothers lap.

"Gross, man! You're spraying me with spit!" Conner glared.

When Travis calmed down Conner read again.

**"Um, thanks," Percy said, but his attention was focused on Nico. "I was wondering if we could talk, you know…about where I might have seen you before."**

**"Sure," Nico said a little too quickly. "The thing is, I spend most of my time in the Underworld. So unless I met you there somehow—"**

"Is he suggesting what I think he is?" Annabeth asked, her voice dangerously low.

**Dakota belched. "Ambassador from Pluto, they call him. Reyna's never sure what to do with this guy when he visits. You should have seen her face when he showed up with Hazel, asking Reyna to take her in. Um, no offense."**

**"None taken." Nico seemed relieved to change the topic. "Dakota was really helpful, standing for Hazel."**

**Dakota blushed. "Yeah, well…She seemed like a good kid. Turned out I was right. Last month, when she saved me from, uh, you know."**

"Huh?" some campers asked.

**"Oh, man!" Frank looked up from his fish and chips. "Percy, you should have seen her! That's how Hazel got her stripe. The unicorns decided to stampede—"**

Leo outright laughed. He was breathing hard at the thought of it. Unicorns stampeding. He laughed and looked at Jason, daring him to say something. Jason just rolled his eyes and grumbled something about how it was funny when you put it that way.

**"It was nothing," Hazel said. **

**"Nothing?" Frank protested. "Dakota would've gotten trampled! You stood right in front of them, shooed them away, saved his hide. I've never seen anything like it."**

**Hazel bit her lip. She didn't like to talk about it, and she felt uncomfortable, the way Frank made her sound like a hero. In truth, she'd been mostly afraid that the unicorns would hurt themselves in their panic. Their horns were precious metal—silver and gold—so she'd managed to turn them aside simply by concentrating, steering the animals by their horns and guiding them back to the stables. It had gotten her a full place in the legion, but it had also started rumors about her strange powers—rumors that reminded her of the bad old days.**

Some campers were sympathetic for Hazel.

**Percy studied her. Those sea-green eyes made her unsettled.**

**"Did you and Nico grow up together?" he asked.**

**"No," Nico answered for her. "I found out that Hazel was my sister only recently. She's from New Orleans."**

**That was true, of course, but not the whole truth. Nico let people think he'd stumbled upon her in modern New Orleans and brought her to camp. It was easier than telling the real story.**

**Hazel had tried to pass herself off as a modern kid. It wasn't easy. Thankfully, demigods didn't use a lot of technology at camp. Their powers tended to make electronic gadgets go haywire.**

"Yeah, like, remember that one time when-"

"Conner, stop talking about something we don't need to know and read," Annabeth told him.

Conner looked offended. "Well."

**But the first time she went on furlough to Berkeley, she had nearly had a stroke. Televisions, computers, iPods, the Internet…It made her glad to get back to the world of ghosts, unicorns, and gods. That seemed much less of a fantasy than the twenty-first century.**

**Nico was still talking about the children of Pluto. "There aren't many of us," he said, "so we have to stick together. When I found Hazel—"**

**"You have other sisters?" Percy asked, almost as if he knew the answer. Hazel wondered again when he and Nico had met, and what her brother was hiding.**

"Oooh, that's a low blow," Thalia said, even though she knew Percy didn't mean to hurt Nico. They were like brothers.

"So he does?" Jason asked Thalia.

It was Annabeth who answered. "I don't know all the details, but long story short, Thalia, Percy, Grover, the previous lieutenant of Artemis, and Nico's sister, Bianca, went on a quest three years ago. Bianca died on the way."

"Ah, man," Leo said. "Poor kid." He knew what it was like to lose someone close to you.

**"One," Nico admitted. "But she died. I saw her spirit a few times in the Underworld, except that the last time I went down there..."**

**To bring her back, Hazel thought, though Nico didn't say that.**

"I thought Nico gave up on that," Thalia asked Annabeth.

She shrugged. He did say he was going to let her rest in peace right after the battle of the labyrinth, but with all the dead rising maybe Nico was just grasping at the straws.

**"She was gone." Nico's voice turned hoarse. "She used to be in Elysium—like, the Underworld paradise—but she chose to be reborn into a new life. Now I'll never see her again. I was just lucky to find Hazel…in New Orleans, I mean."**

**Dakota grunted. "Unless you believe the rumors. Not saying that I do."**

**"Rumors?" Percy asked.**

**From across the room, Don the faun yelled, "Hazel!"**

**Hazel had never been so glad to see the faun. He wasn't allowed in camp, but of course he always managed to get in. He was working his way toward their table, grinning at everybody, sneaking food off plates, and pointing at campers: "Hey! Call me!" A flying pizza smacked him in the head,**

"Not fun," said Grover, thinking of the food fight he started at Hoover Dam.

**and he disappeared behind a couch. Then he popped up, still grinning, and made his way over.**

**"My favorite girl!" He smelled like a wet goat wrapped in old cheese. He leaned over their couches and checked out their food. "Say, new kid, you going to eat that?"**

Grover looked aghast. "He actually wants to _eat meat?"_

**Percy frowned. "Aren't fauns vegetarian?"**

"Hey, he remembers me!" Grover got so excited at the prospect of his best friend remembering him that he got up and pointed to himself. Remembering that he didn't like attention, he blushed and sat down. Some kids snickered.

**"Not the cheeseburger, man! The plate!" He sniffed Percy's hair. "Hey…what's that smell?"**

"What?" Thalia asked perplexed.

Travis and Conner snickered. "Next time we see Percy, we've got to sniff his hair just to annoy him," Travis whispered to his brother who nodded.

**"Don!" Hazel said. "Don't be rude."**

**"No, man, I just—"**

**Their house god Vitellius shimmered into existence, standing half embedded in Frank's couch. "Fauns in the dining hall! What are we coming to? Centurion Dakota, do your duty!"**

**"I am," Dakota grumbled into his goblet. "I'm having dinner!"**

**Don was still sniffing around Percy. "Man, you've got an empathy link with a faun!"**

"Grover!" Annabeth exclaimed excitedly. "Do you think it still works?"

"Maybe," Grover said, his eyes gleaming. "We could try it later after lunch."

"I can't believe we hadn't thought of it sooner!" Annabeth was mentally cursing herself.

Leo, being the idiot he was, leaned forward in his seat on the bench and asked, "Um, what's an empathy link?"

Annabeth and Piper shared a look. "I'll explain later," Piper told him.

"But-"

"Read," Piper commanded Conner with a hint of charmspeak.

**Percy leaned away from him. "A what?"**

**"An empathy link! It's real faint, like somebody's suppressed it, but—"**

**"I know what!" Nico stood suddenly. "Hazel, how about we give you and Frank time to get Percy oriented? Dakota and I can visit the praetor's table. Don and Vitellius, you come too. We can discuss strategies for the war games."**

**"Strategies for losing?" Dakota muttered.**

"Ah, don't be like that!" Will said in a cheery voice. Well, as cheery as you could get during a war.

**"Death Boy is right!" Vitellius said.**

"Wha-no! That's one of my nicknames for him!" Thalia's mouth dropped open.

Annabeth giggled. "Oh, well, Thals."

**"This legion fights worse than we did in Judea, and that was the first time we lost our eagle. Why, if **_**I **_**were in charge—"**

**"Could I just eat the silverware first?" Don asked.**

**"Let's go!" Nico stood and grabbed Don and Vitellius by the ears.**

**Nobody but Nico could actually touch the Lares. Vitellius spluttered with outrage as he was dragged off to the praetor's table.**

"Ha!"

**"Ow!" Don protested. "Man, watch the 'fro!"**

**"Come on, Dakota!" Nico called over his shoulder.**

**The centurion got up reluctantly. He wiped his mouth—uselessly, since it was permanently stained red. "Back soon." He shook all over, like a dog trying to get dry. Then he staggered away, his goblet sloshing.**

**"What was that about?" Percy asked.**

**"And what's wrong with Dakota?" Frank sighed. "He's okay. He's a son of Bacchus, the wine god.**

"So, he's my brother," Pollux said wide eyed.

Jason nodded. "He's a good guy."

**He's got a drinking problem." Percy's eyes widened. "You let him drink **_**wine**_**?"**

Thalia and Annabeth barked out laughs along with Grover, the Stolls, and a few others.

"That would be a _disaster_!" Annabeth said.

**"Gods, no!" Hazel said. "That would be a disaster.**

Annabeth's eyebrows raised. "I like this girl," she decided.

**He's addicted to red Kool- Aid. Drinks it with three times the normal sugar, and he's already ADHD—you know, attention deficit/hyperactive. One of these days, his head is going to explode."**

**Percy looked over at the praetor's table. Most of the senior officers were in deep conversation with Reyna. Nico and his two captives, Don and Vitellius, stood on the periphery. Dakota was running back and forth along a line of stacked shields, banging his goblet on them like they were a xylophone.**

Snickering. There was snickering.

**"ADHD," Percy said. "You don't say."**

**Hazel tried not to laugh. "Well…most demigods are. Or dyslexic. Just being a demigod means that our brains are wired differently. Like you—you said you had trouble reading."**

**"Are you guys that way too?" Percy asked.**

**"I don't know," Hazel admitted.**

"Wha-you can't say they've never read anything!" the Athena cabin looked shocked.

**"Maybe. Back in my day, they just called kids like us 'lazy.'"**

**Percy frowned. "Back in your day?"**

**Hazel cursed herself.**

**Luckily for her, Frank spoke up: "I wish I was ADHD or dyslexic.**

"He actually w_ants_ it?" a random camper asked.

**All I got is lactose intolerance."**

"Chhh-hahaha!" the campers chortled at the way the tone Conner read it in sounded. Who knew the Stolls could make a _book _ come to life? A prank-yes. But a book? This was a surprise.

**Percy grinned. "Seriously?"**

**Frank might've been the silliest demigod ever, but Hazel thought he was cute when he pouted. His shoulders slumped. "And I love ice cream, too.…"**

"Ahaha!" the campers laughed.

**Percy laughed. Hazel couldn't help joining in. It was good to sit at dinner and actually feel like she was among friends.**

**"Okay, so tell me," Percy said, "why is it bad to be in the Fifth Cohort? You guys are great."**

"They really are," Annabeth and the others were nodding. Except Drew. She didn't really care about **anyone except herself.**

**The compliment made Hazel's toes tingle. "It's…complicated. Aside from being Pluto's kid, I want to ride horses."**

**"That's why you use a cavalry sword?"**

**She nodded. "It's stupid, I guess. Wishful thinking. There's only one pegasus at camp—Reyna's. The unicorns are just kept for medicine, because the shavings off their horns cure poison and stuff. Anyway, Roman fighting is always done on foot. Cavalry…they kind of look down on that. So they look down on me."**

"That's stupid," it was Clarisse who said this. "She's still a fighter, and a good one at that, if she can take on the gorgons."

**"Their loss," Percy said. "What about you, Frank?"**

**"Archery," he muttered.**

"And he's good, too," Clarisse nodded. Then she scowled. "That'll be the _one _time I ever compliment one of your lot-the archers, I mean. Got it?"

The Apollo cabin gulped and nodded.

**"They don't like that either, unless you're a child of Apollo. Then you've got an excuse. I hope my dad is Apollo, but I don't know. I can't do poetry very well. And I'm not sure I want to be related to Octavian."**

**"Can't blame you," Percy said. "But you're excellent with the bow—the way you pegged those gorgons? Forget what other people think."**

**Frank's face turned as red as Dakota's Kool-Aid. "Wish I could. They all think I should be a sword fighter because I'm big and bulky." He looked down at his body, like he couldn't quite believe it was his.**

"I don't know if he is related to Apollo in any way," Malcom said studying the Apollo children. "Not that looks have anything to do with it, but I doubt Frank can be his son. Archers of Apollo are lean."

**"They say I'm too stocky for an archer. Maybe if my dad would ever claim me…"**

**They ate in silence for a few minutes. A dad who wouldn't claim you…Hazel knew that feeling. She sensed Percy could relate, too.**

_Before the Titan War,_ Annabeth thought,_ most people could relate._

**"You asked about the Fifth," she said at last. "Why it's the worst cohort. That actually started way before us."**

**She pointed to the back wall, where the legion's standards were on display. "See the empty pole in the middle?"**

**"The eagle," Percy said.**

**Hazel was stunned. "How'd you know?"**

"He's smarter than he looks," Thalia and Annabeth said at the same time.

**Percy shrugged. "Vitellius was talking about how the legion lost its eagle a long time ago—the first time, he said. He acted like it was a huge disgrace. I'm guessing that's what's missing. And from the way you and Reyna were talking earlier, I'm guessing your eagle got lost a second time, more recently, and it had something to do with the Fifth Cohort."**

**Hazel made a mental note not to underestimate Percy again. When he'd first arrived, she'd thought he was a little goofy from the questions he'd asked—about the Feast of Tuna and all—but clearly he was smarter than he let on.**

Thalia laughed and Annabeth cracked a smile.

**"You're right," she said. "That's exactly what happened."**

**"So what is this eagle, anyway? Why is it a big deal?"**

**Frank looked around to make sure no one was eavesdropping. "It's the symbol of the whole camp—a big eagle made of gold. It's supposed to protect us in battle and make our enemies afraid. Each legion's eagle gave it all sorts of power, and ours came from Jupiter himself. Supposedly Julius Caesar nicknamed our legion 'Fulminata'— armed with lightning—because of what the eagle could do."**

**"I don't like lightning," Percy said.**

Grover looked pointedly at the Zeus table and said, "Might have something to do with you."

Thalia, who was trying to act innocent by whistling and looking around, said, "What? I have no idea what you're talking about."

Jason's eyebrows pulled together, confused. " But I thought you and Percy got along."

"We do," Thalia said. "We've just had a few, uh, disagreements." She blinked.

"Disagreements!" the Stolls scoffed. "Try you zapping him with lightning and him dousing you with a funnel of water during capture the flag! You singed of his arm hair!"

"It grew back!" Thalia protested.

"He looked like your kind!" they shouted.

"What-a girl?"

"Yeah!"

Jason nodded watching, amused. He was already planning to get the full story later.

**"Yeah, well," Hazel said, "it didn't make us invincible. The Twelfth lost its eagle the first time way back in ancient days, during the Jewish Rebellion."**

**"I think I saw a movie like that," Percy said.**

**Hazel shrugged. "Could be. There have been lots of books and movies about legions losing their eagles. Unfortunately it happened quite a few times. The eagle was so important…well, archaeologists have never recovered a single eagle from ancient Rome. Each legion guarded theirs to the last man, because it was charged with power from the gods. They'd rather hide it or melt it down than surrender it to an enemy. The Twelfth was lucky the first time. We got our eagle back. But the second time…"**

**"You guys were there?" Percy asked .They both shook their heads.**

**"I'm almost as new as you." Frank tapped his probatioplate. "Just got here last month. But everyone's heard the story. It's bad luck to even talk about this. There was this huge expedition to Alaska back in the eighties.…"**

**"That prophecy you noticed in the temple," Hazel continued, "the one about the seven demigods and the Doors of Death? Our senior praetor at the time was Michael Varus, from the Fifth Cohort. Back then the Fifth was the best in camp. He thought it would bring glory to the legion if he could figure out the prophecy and make it come true—save the world from storm and fire and all that. He talked to the augur, and the augur said the answer was in Alaska. But he warned Michael it wasn't time yet. The prophecy wasn't for him."**

"No, it's for us," Piper said. "Unfortunately."

**"But he went anyway," Percy guessed. "What happened?"**

**Frank lowered his voice. "Long, gruesome story. Almost the entire Fifth Cohort was wiped out. Most of legion's Imperial gold weapons were lost, along with the eagle. The survivors went crazy or refused to talk about what had attacked them."**

_**I**_** know, Hazel thought solemnly. But she kept silent.**

"How can she know?" a younger camper, maybe ten years old, asked.

**"Since the eagle was lost," Frank continued, "the camp has been getting weaker. Quests are more dangerous. Monsters attack the borders more often. Morale is lower. The last month or so, things have been getting much worse, much faster."**

**"And the Fifth Cohort took the blame," Percy guessed. "So now everyone thinks we're cursed."**

"Oh," Leo and Chris said.

**Hazel realized her gumbo was cold. She sipped a spoonful, but the comfort food didn't taste very comforting. "We've been the outcasts of the legion since…well, since the Alaska disaster. Our reputation got better when Jason became praetor—"**

**"The kid who's missing?" Percy asked.**

"'Hey, that was my first reaction to you, too, man." Jason grinned.

**"Yeah," Frank said. "I never met him. Before my time. **

"That makes me sound old," Jason said.

**But I hear he was a good leader. He practically grew up in the Fifth Cohort. He didn't care what people thought about us. He started to rebuild our reputation.**

"Good," Piper nodded approvingly.

**Then he disappeared."**

**"Which put us back at square one," Hazel said bitterly. "Made us look cursed all over again. I'm sorry, Percy. Now you know what you've gotten yourself into."**

**Percy sipped his blue soda and gazed thoughtfully across the dining hall. "I don't even know where I come from…but I've got a feeling this isn't the first time I've been an underdog." He focused on Hazel and managed a smile. "Besides, joining the legion is better than being chased through the wilderness by monsters.**

"The hunters and I seem to manage," Thalia said with a shrug.

"Yeah, but you're protected by a goddess," Piper pointed out.

"Yup!" Thalia said, popping the 'p'.

**I've got myself some new friends. Maybe together we can turn things around for the Fifth Cohort, huh?"**

"They sure can," Annabeth said, settling her arm against the now clear picnic table.

**A horn blew at the end of the hall. The officers at the praetor's table got to their feet—even Dakota, his mouth vampire-red from Kool-Aid.**

**"The games begin!" Reyna announced. The campers cheered and rushed to collect their equipment from the stacks along the walls.**

**"So we're the attacking team?" Percy asked over the noise. "Is that good?"**

**Hazel shrugged. "Good news: we get the elephant. Bad news—"**

**"Let me guess," said Percy. "The Fifth Cohort always loses." **

"Typical," Clarisse rolled her eyes. "Gods, I hope they go in there and kick some butt!"

**Frank slapped Percy on the shoulder. "I love this guy. Come on, new friend. Let's go chalk up my thirteenth defeat in a row!"**

Some campers were chuckling. Then the realization hit them. _Thirteenth defeat? _Whoa.

"Give it," Clarisse said. "If there's going to be more action, I want to read."

"Okay, here," Conner threw the book across the pavilion.

Clarisse caught it expertly in her awaiting hands and began to read, **Frank IX**.


	11. Frank IX

**A/N-Hey, guys, it's, like, really early in the morning on a Monday morning before school, and I can't sleep. So, here you go! Yay! Next chapter. *Shakes head.* The things I do for you.**

Clarisse caught it expertly in her awaiting hands and began to read,** Frank IX.**

**AS HE MARCHED TO THE WAR GAMES, Frank replayed the day in his mind. He couldn't believe how close he'd come to death.**

"Don't we come close to death everyday as demigods?" Leo raised his hand like he was in a class room.

"Yeah," Annabeth rolled her eyes, "but that's not the point right now.

Clarisse glared ferociously. "Will you let me finish?"

Leo gulped and nodded.

Clarisse continued to read.

**That morning on sentry duty, before Percy showed up, Frank had almost told Hazel his secret. The two of them had been standing for hours in the chilly fog, watching the commuter traffic on Highway 24. Hazel had been complaining about the cold.**

**"I'd give anything to be warm," she said, her teeth chattering. "I wish we had a fire."**

Leo perked up. _I've got a fire,_ he thought. And his fingers danced with flames.

Nyssa slapped at his arm. "Put that away!"

**Even with her armor on, she looked great. Frank liked the way her cinnamon toast– colored hair curled around the edges of her helmet, and the way her chin dimpled when she frowned. She was tiny compared to Frank, which made him feel like a big clumsy ox. He wanted to put his arms around her to warm her up, but he'd never do that.**

"Aww, you see, he likes her back!" Lacy cooed.

Piper sighed, "Alright, whatever, Lacy. I'm not going to even _try_ arguing with you."

Lacy smiled proudly.

**She'd probably hit him, and he'd lose the only friend he had at camp.**

**I could make a really impressive fire, he thought.**

"How? Is he like me?" Leo asked.

**Of course, it would only burn for a few minutes, and then I'd die.…**

"Umm.., maybe not," Leo decided.

**It was scary that he even considered it. Hazel had that effect on him. Whenever she wanted something, he had the irrational urge to provide it. He wanted to be the old-fashioned knight riding to her rescue, which was stupid, as she was way more capable at everything than he was.**

Thalia smiled. "There, you see," she said, "another point for the hunters."

"I thought you gave up on that last October," Annabeth rolled her eyes.

"No way," Thalia scoffed. "We're trying to find ways to prove our single awesomeness. Right, Rachel?"

"Right, Thalia," Rachel smiled. "So, far, that's fifty-six for us and, uh, four for them."

"What's the four for us?" Annabeth asked grinning.

"Not telling," Thalia grumbled. Rachel looked sullen.

"Yeah, I'll get it out of you," Annabeth laughed.

Meanwhile, the Aphrodite table went into a frenzy. They called the whole operation, Frazel.

**He imagined what his grandmother would say: **_**Frank Zhang riding to the rescue? Ha! He'd fall off his horse and break his neck.**_

"You see?" Travis said. "I always knew old people were bitter! Um, no offence, Chiron."

Conner nodded halfway and then snickered at the Chiron comment.

Chiron frowned. "I'm not _that_ old."

"Give or take a few eons," Travis muttered.

**Hard to believe it had been only six weeks since he'd left his grandmother's house—six weeks since his mom's funeral.**

_Aw__**, **__man,_ Leo thought, _another one. I feel you, man._

Jason, though he didn't remember his mother, was having similar thoughts.

**Everything had happened since then: wolves arriving at his grandmother's door, the journey to Camp Jupiter, the weeks he'd spent in the Fifth Cohort trying not to be a complete failure. Through it all, he'd kept the half-burned piece of firewood wrapped in a cloth in his coat pocket.**

"Um, why?" Will asked.

**Keep it close, his grandmother had warned. As long as it is safe, you are safe.**

"Honestly, it's just a piece of wood."

"Oh, if the tree nymphs heard you say that!" Grover laughed, though half out of fear. He knew what they could do. Plus, Juniper, his girlfriend, was a tree nymph. They weren't just _pieces of wood._ They were living nature.

**The problem was that it burned so easily. He remembered the trip south from Vancouver. When the temperature dropped below freezing near Mount Hood, Frank had brought out the piece of tinder and held it in his hands, imagining how nice it would be to have some fire. Immediately, the charred end blazed with a searing yellow flame.**

Reactions were immediate. "Whoa!"

**It lit up the night and warmed Frank to the bone, but he could feel his life slipping away, as if he were being consumed rather than the wood. **

There were cries of "Oh, no!"

Piper turned to Leo. "That doesn't happen to you, does it?"

"No," Leo frowned. "My dad said it was a gift, not some life consuming force!" he spread his hands when he said that.

"Hmm," Annabeth mumbled wondering.

**It was as though someone had said, "Whatever you do, don't think about that stick bursting into flame!"**

**So of course, that's all he thought about.**

"Well, duh!" Travis rolled his eyes. "That's all _I'd _be able to think about if my life depended on a half burned stick!"

"Wait, Travis, say that again!" Annabeth told him.

"That's all I'd be able to think about?" Travis repeated confused.

"No, after that."

"Oh, his life depends on a half burned stick."

"Huh," Annabeth leaned back against the table, letting the new information sink in.

"Holy Zeus, _Travis _figured something out before _Annabeth Chase_," Thalia stage whispered.

Annabeth glared at her halfheartedly. She knew that the Stolls could be smart and useful when they wanted to. She also knew Thalia was teasing her just to get her in a good mood. Whatever.

**On sentry duty with Hazel, he would try to take his mind off it. He loved spending time with her. He asked her about growing up in New Orleans, but she got edgy at his questions, so they made small talk instead. Just for fun, they tried to speak French to each other. Hazel had some Creole blood on her mother's side. Frank had taken French in school. Neither of them was very fluent, and Louisiana French was so different from Canadian French it was almost impossible to converse. When Frank asked Hazel how her beef was feeling today, and she replied that his shoe was green, they decided to give up.**

Piper laughed. "Lucky I can speak the language of love fluently, I guess!"

**Then Percy Jackson had arrived.**

"Woooo!" the camp cheered.

**Sure, Frank had seen kids fight monsters before. He'd fought plenty of them himself on his journey from Vancouver. But he'd never seen gorgons. He'd never seen a goddess in person. And the way Percy had controlled the Little Tiber—wow. Frank wished he had powers like that.**

"Or maybe you'll like mine better," Leo grinned, pooping an imaginary coat collar.

Piper rolled her eyes. "Idiot. He'll die!"

Leo frowned for a second. "Oh, yeah."

**He could still feel the gorgons' claws pressing into his arms and smell their snaky breath—like dead mice and poison. If not for Percy, those grotesque hags would have carried him away. He'd be a pile of bones in the back of a Bargain Mart by now.**

**After the incident at the river, Reyna had sent Frank to the armory, which had given him way too much time to think.**

**While he polished swords, he remembered Juno, warning them to unleash Death.**

**Unfortunately Frank had a pretty good idea of what the goddess meant. He had tried to hide his shock when Juno had appeared, but she looked exactly like his grandmother had described—right down to the goatskin cape.**

**She chose your path years ago, Grandmother had told him. And it will not be easy.**

**Frank glanced at his bow in the corner of the armory. He'd feel better if Apollo would claim him as a son.**

Annabeth looked at Will. "He is excellent with the bow and arrow."

Will looked torn. He had his suspicions. "It doesn't add up," he said. "I mean, come on, tell me you can't see the similarities-aside from the totally different attitudes." He glanced toward the Ares cabin.

Annabeth followed his gaze and stared curiously at the Ares cabin.

"What are you looking at?" Clarisse sneered.

Annabeth shook her head. "Just read."

Clarisse actually obliged.

**Frank had been sure his godly parent would speak up on his sixteenth birthday, which had passed two weeks ago.**

"Poor guy," Jason said.

**Sixteen was an important milestone for Romans. It had been Frank's first birthday at camp. But nothing had happened. Now Frank hoped he would be claimed on the Feast of Fortuna, though from what Juno had said, they'd be in a battle for their lives on that day.**

**His father **_**had**_** to be Apollo.**

**Archery was the only thing Frank was good at. Years ago, his mother had told him that their family name, Zhang, meant "master of bows" in Chinese. That must have been a hint about his dad.**

"Huh," Annabeth said. "You sure, Will?"

"Definitely," Will replied.

"What?" Leo.

**Frank put down his polishing rags. He looked at the ceiling. "Please, Apollo, if you're my dad, tell me. I want to be an archer like you."**

**"No, you don't," a voice grumbled.**

**Frank jumped out of his seat. Vitellius, the Fifth Cohort's Lar, was shimmering behind him. His full name was Gaius Vitellius Reticulus, but the other cohorts called him Vitellius the Ridiculous.**

"Oh! I recognize that name! He's really odd. Most of us in the fifth cohart-er, never mind, the whole camp, can't stand him," Jason said, shaking his head.

**"Hazel Levesque sent me to check on you," Vitellius said, hiking up his sword belt. "Good thing, too. Look at the state of this armor!"**

**Vitellius wasn't one to talk. His toga was baggy, his tunic barely fit over his belly, and his scabbard fell off his belt every three seconds, but Frank didn't bother pointing that out.**

"Ew," some campers cinged at the thought, their faces scrunching up in disgust.

**"As for archers," the ghost said, "they're wimps! Back in my day, archery was a job for barbarians.**

"WHAT!" the Apollo cabin and Thalia cried in outrage, scandalized.

**A good Roman should be in the fray, gutting his enemy with spear and sword like a civilized man!**

"Yeah!" cheered all Ares kids.

Annabeth scoffed and some others snickered. That wasn't how it was but what could they say to a bunch of heavily armed, bloodthirsty, war god kids?

**That's how we did it in the Punic Wars.**

Annabeth frowned, going into full study mode. "That wasn't until nearly a century after Vitellius, though."

"I know," Jason nodded. "He takes pride in his, um, _social status._ We try to stay out of it."

**Roman up, boy!"**

**Frank sighed. "I thought you were in Caesar's army."**

**"I was!"**

"See?" Jason asked.

Annabeth laughed and nodded.

**"Vitellius, Caesar was hundreds of years after the Punic Wars. You couldn't have been alive that long."**

**"Questioning my honor?" Vitellius looked so mad, his purple aura glowed. He drew his ghostly gladius and yelled, "Take that!"**

**He ran the sword, which was about as deadly as a laser pointer, through Frank's chest a few times.**

**"Ouch," Frank said, just to be nice.**

"Great," Clarisse scoffed. "A flab ghost."

Some campers snickered at Frank's 'just to be nice' bit.

**Vitellius looked satisfied and put his sword away. "Perhaps you'll think twice about doubting your elders next time! Now…it was your sixteenth birthday recently, wasn't it?"**

**Frank nodded. He wasn't sure how Vitellius knew this, since Frank hadn't told anyone except Hazel, but ghosts had ways of finding out secrets. Eavesdropping while invisible was probably one of them.**

Many of the campers looked outraged at the thought of someone spying on them. then again, their godly parents did it all the time.

**"So that's why you're such a grumpy gladiator," the Lar said. "Understandable. The sixteenth birthday is your day of manhood! Your godly parent should have claimed you, no doubt about it, even if with only a small omen. Perhaps he thought you were younger. You look younger, you know, with that pudgy baby face."**

"So, I guess the deal Percy made with the gods," Annabeth began, "only applies to the Greek side of the family then."

"Yeah," Jason nodded. "It's kinda always been a tradition for the Romans to be claimed when their sixteen."

"Dangerous, too," Piper muttered, thinking about all that was said about demigod scents. She was silently thanking the deal that was made to claim demigods at thirteen.

**"Thanks for reminding me," Frank muttered.**

**"Yes, I remember my sixteenth," Vitellius said happily. "Wonderful omen! A chicken in my underpants."**

The Stolls laughed outright with some others while everyone else looked confused.

"Excuse me?" Lacy said, leaning her elbows on the table.

**"Excuse me?"**

"Aww, you think like Frank!" Drew said a little mockingly.

Lacy turned red. "Shut up! He's for Hazel!"

Drew snickered, "Loser."

**Vitellius puffed up with pride. "That's right! I was at the river changing my clothes for my Liberalia. Rite of passage into manhood, you know. We did things properly back then. I'd taken off my childhood toga and was washing up to don the adult one. Suddenly, a pure-white chicken ran out of nowhere, dove into my loincloth, and ran off with it. I wasn't wearing it at the time."**

"TMI," Leo muttered, holding his head and cringing at the mental image, as were many others.

**"That's good," Frank said. "And can I just say: Too much information?"**

Leo smiled. "Hey, we think alike!"

Jason, Annabeth, and Piper grinned. If they got on as well as they thought they would, then leading the quest to defeat Gaia wouldn't be as hard as it could be.

**"Mm." Vitellius wasn't listening. "That was the sign I was descended from Aesculapius, the god of medicine. I took my cognomen, my third name, Reticulus, because it meant undergarment, to remind me of the blessed day when a chicken stole my loincloth."**

"Kkhhkk, blessed," Travis snickered and then laughed so hard he fell off his cabin's bench. His brother followed suit.

Annabeth rolled her eyes and waved Clarisse on, "Keep reading.

Clarisse sighed but did as she was told, shocking the campers who cared to notice.

**"So…your name means Mr. Underwear?"**

Leo joined the Stolls on the ground, even though they weren't at the same table. Nyssa was going to tell him to sit back up, but decided it was no use.

**"Praise the gods! I became a surgeon in the legion, and the rest is history." He spread his arms generously. "Don't give up, boy. Maybe your father is running late. Most omens are not as dramatic as a chicken, of course. I knew a fellow once who got a dung beetle—"**

"You know what?" Thalia cringed. "I don't think I want to know about more omens from the gods. Ever."

**"Thanks, Vitellius," Frank said. "But I have to finish polishing this armor—"**

**"And the gorgon's blood?"**

"Vitellus eavesdropped," Annabeth had to explain for those who didn't connect it before anyone could open their mouths to ask.

**Frank froze. He hadn't told anyone about that. As far as he knew, only Percy had seen him pocket the vials at the river, and they hadn't had a chance to talk about it.**

**"Come now," Vitellius chided. "I'm a healer. I know the legends about gorgon's blood. Show me the vials."**

"What does being a healer-?" Leo started to ask before  
>Piper silenced him, knowing the book would probably explain most of the facts anyway.<p>

**Reluctantly, Frank brought out the two ceramic flasks he'd retrieved from the Little Tiber. Spoils of war were often left behind when a monster dissolved— sometimes a tooth, or a weapon, or even the monster's entire head.**

**Frank had known what the two vials were immediately. By tradition they belonged to Percy, who had killed the gorgons, but Frank couldn't help thinking, What if I could use them?**

**"Yes." Vitellius studied the vials approvingly. "Blood taken from the right side of a gorgon's body can cure any disease, even bring the dead back to life.**

The healers of the Apollo cabin were listening intently. Meanwhile, Annabeth was thinking about what could possibly happen if _Percy _drank the right vial.

**The goddess Minerva once gave a vial of it to my divine ancestor, Aesculapius. But blood taken from the left side of a gorgon— instantly fatal. So, which is which?"**

**"Oh, don't worry, boy." The ghost chuckled. "I won't tell anyone. I'm a Lar, a protector of the cohort! I wouldn't do anything to endanger you."**

**"You stabbed me through the chest with your sword."**

"Yeah, but it didn't hurt you," Clarisse said, interrupting herself again.

**"Trust me, boy! I have sympathy for you, carrying the curse of that Argonaut."**

"The curse of the Argonaut!" Annabeth's eyes widened, along with the rest of the elders of the Athena cabin.

"Huh?" the rest of the camp questioned.

**"The ... what?"**

**Vitellius waved away the question. "Don't be modest. You've got ancient roots. Greek as well as Roman.**

"How?" some Athena kids questioned themselves.

**It's no wonder Juno—" He tilted his head, as if listening to a voice from above.**

**His face went slack. His entire aura flickered green. "But I've said enough! At any rate, I'll let you work out who gets the gorgon's blood. I suppose that newcomer Percy could use it too, with his memory problem."**

**Frank wondered what Vitellius had been about to say and what had made him so scared, but he got the feeling that for once Vitellius was going to keep his mouth shut.**

**He looked down at the two vials. He hadn't even thought of Percy's needing them. He felt guilty that he'd been intending to use the blood for himself. "Yeah. Of course. He should have it."**

**"Ah, but if you want my advice…" Vitellius looked up nervously again. "You should both wait on that gorgon blood. If my sources are right, you're going to need it on your quest."**

**"Quest?"**

**The doors of the armory flew open.**

**Reyna stormed in with her metal greyhounds. Vitellius vanished. He might have liked chickens, but he did not like the praetor's dogs.**

**"Frank." Reyna looked troubled. "That's enough with the armor. Go find Hazel. Get Percy Jackson down here. He's been up there too long. I don't want Octavian…" She hesitated. "Just get Percy down here." **

Annabeth's eyes narrowed. "Jason, I'm sorry, but I don't think I'm going to like Octavian."

Jason laughed over at the Zeus table. "No one does!"

**So Frank had run all the way to Temple Hill.**

**Walking back, Percy had asked tons of questions about Hazel's brother, Nico, but Frank didn't know that much.**

Annabeth, though she had gotten over the shock and anger at Nico being at the Roman camp, was still upset at the mention of him _knowing he was there._

**"He's okay," Frank said. "He's not like Hazel—"**

**"How do you mean?" Percy asked.**

**"Oh, um…" Frank coughed. He'd meant that Hazel was better looking and nicer,**

Nearly, everyone, the Aphrodite cabin the loudest, laughed at the cute and awkward atmosphere.

Travis and Conner were shouting, "Nico's not gonna like that!"

**but he decided not to say that. "Nico is kind of mysterious. He makes everybody else nervous, being the son of Pluto, and all."**

**"But not you?"**

**Frank shrugged. "Pluto's cool. It's not his fault he runs the Underworld. He just got bad luck when the gods were dividing up the world, you know? Jupiter got the sky, Neptune got the sea, and Pluto got the shaft."**

**"Death doesn't scare you?"**

**Frank almost wanted to laugh. **_**Not at all! Got a match?**_

"Oh, I just love the sound of sarcasm in the morning! We want more from you my best friend, oh, sarcasm buddy!" Leo drawled waving his hands. He cracked up afterward like a mad person, his head on the table, face down.

**Instead he said, "Back in the old times, like the Greek times, when Pluto was called Hades, he was more of a death god. When he became Roman, he got more…I don't know, respectable. He became the god of wealth, too. Everything under the earth belongs to him. So I don't think of him as being real scary."**

**Percy scratched his head. "How does a god become Roman? If he's Greek, wouldn't he stay Greek?"**

**Frank walked a few steps, thinking about that. Vitellius would've given Percy an hour-long lecture on the subject, probably with a PowerPoint presentation,**

"Uh!" the Ares cabin groaned, though the Athena cabin didn't seem to mind.

**but Frank took his best shot. "The way Romans saw it, they adopted the Greek stuff and perfected it."**

"Perfected it?" Annabeth asked. "Well, sure they modernized it, but there's nothing wrong with it." She looked over at Jason. "No offense."

Jason shrugged. "None taken."

**Percy made a sour face. "Perfected it? Like there was something wrong with it?"**

A lot of eyes widened. "Either you really got to him," Malcom muttered to Annabeth, "or it's his Greek pride coming out."

"They really are perfect for each other," the Aphrodite girls were sighing.

**Frank remembered what Vitellius had said: You've got ancient roots. Greek as well as Roman. His grandmother had said something similar.**

**"I don't know," he admitted. "Rome was more successful than Greece. They made this huge empire. The gods became a bigger deal in Roman times—more powerful and widely known. That's why they're **still** around today. So many civilizations base themselves on Rome. The gods changed to Roman because that's where the center of power was. Jupiter was…well, more responsible as a Roman god than he had been when he was Zeus. Mars became a lot more important and disciplined."**

**"And Juno became a hippie bag lady," Percy noted.**

Jason grinned. "Well, she's more important than that, but I've gotta give him props. That was a good one."

Thalia laughed.

**"So you're saying the old Greek gods—they just changed permanently to Roman? There's nothing left of the Greek?"**

"No," Annabeth said simply. "We're good and Greek. We're all here."

**"Uh…" Frank looked around to make sure there were no campers or Lares nearby, but the main gates were still a hundred yards away. "That's a sensitive topic. Some people say Greek influence is still around, like it's still a part of the gods' personalities. I've heard stories of demigods occasionally leaving Camp Jupiter. They reject Roman training and try to follow the older Greek style—like being solo heroes instead of working as a team the way the legion does.**

Kids running away from camp was not new to the Greeks, Roman or not.

**And back in the ancient days, when Rome fell, the eastern half of the empire survived—the Greek half."**

Sounds of astonishment were heard throughout the campers. "Oh right!" "I learned about that this semester!"

**Percy stared at him. "I didn't know that."**

"Hmm," Annabeth sounded.

**"It was called Byzantium." Frank liked saying that word. It sounded cool.**

"That's so random!" Leo laughed with Travis and Conner and the other guys.

"I don't get what's so funny about the history of Greece rising and falling," an Athena camper with seemingly no humor stated.

**"The eastern empire lasted another thousand years, but it was always more Greek than Roman. For those of us who follow the Roman way, it's kind of a sore subject. That's why, whatever country we settle in, Camp Jupiter is always in the west—the Roman part of the territory. The east is considered bad luck."**

"Oh."

**"Huh." Percy frowned.**

**Frank couldn't blame him for feeling confused. The Greek/Roman stuff gave him a headache, too.**

**They reached the gates. "I'll take you to the baths to get you cleaned up," Frank said. "But first…about those vials I found at the river."**

**"Gorgon's blood," Percy said. "One vial heals. One is deadly poison."**

**Frank's eyes widened. "You know about that? Listen, I wasn't going to keep them. I just—"**

**"I know why you did it, Frank."**

**"You do?"**

**"Yeah." Percy smiled. "If I'd come into camp carrying a vial of poison, that would've looked bad. You were trying to protect me."**

Annabeth smiled. Percy always, always thought the best of people.

**"Oh…right." Frank wiped the sweat off his palms. "But if we could figure out which vial is which, it might heal your memory." Percy's smile faded. He gazed across the hills. "Maybe…I guess. But you should hang on to those vials for now. There's a battle coming. We may need them to save lives."**

**Frank stared at him, a little bit in awe. Percy had a chance to get his memory back, and he was willing to wait in case someone else needed the vial more? Romans were supposed to be unselfish and help their comrades, but Frank wasn't sure anyone else at camp would have made that choice.**

"That's because Percy's selfless," Annaebth nodded. Many others were smiling and nodding, too.

**"So you don't remember anything?" Frank asked. "Family, friends?"**

**Percy fingered the clay beads around his neck. "Only glimpses. Murky stuff. A girlfriend…I thought she'd be at camp." He looked at Frank carefully, as if making a decision. "Her name was Annabeth. You don't know her, do you?"**

Annabeth hung her head. Not in shame, but in sorrow. He misses her as much as she misses him. It was almost too much to bear, but she'd do it all and more for Percy.

**Frank shook his head. "I know everybody at camp, but no Annabeth. What about your family? Is your mom mortal?"**

**"I guess so…she's probably worried out of her mind. Does your mom get to see you much?"**

**Frank stopped at the bathhouse entrance. He grabbed some towels from the supply shed. "She died." Percy knit his brow. "How?"**

Grover looked at Annabeth. He knew this would be the time she would glare and nudge at his best friend for being so into things, but he guessed she knew what it was like, being Percy,

He had asked her about her father and got her to tell him when no one else could. He reached some level of understanding and trust that others just _had _to give in.

**Usually Frank would lie. He'd say an accident and shut off the conversation.**

**Otherwise his emotions got out of control. He couldn't cry at Camp Jupiter. He couldn't show weakness. But with Percy, Frank found it easier to talk.**

**"She died in the war," he said. "Afghanistan."**

**"She was in the military?"**

**"Canadian. Yeah."**

**"Canada? I didn't know— "**

**"Most Americans don't." Frank sighed. "But yeah, Canada has troops there. My mom was a captain. She was one of the first women to die in combat. She saved some soldiers who were pinned down by enemy fire. She…she didn't make it. The funeral was right before I came down here."**

**Percy nodded. He didn't ask for more details, which Frank appreciated. He didn't say he was sorry, or make any of the well meaning comments Frank always hated: Oh, you poor guy. That must be so hard on you. You have my deepest condolences.**

**It was like Percy had faced death before,**

"OHHH, HE HAD!" multiple campers and counselors and Chiron said at the same time.

Before they could get into Percy's many near-death experiences, Clarisse returned to the book clutched in her hands.

**like he knew about grief. What mattered was listening. You didn't need to say you were sorry. The only thing that helped was moving on—moving forward.**

**"How about you show me the baths now?" Percy suggested. "I'm filthy."**

Thalia scoffed. "Nice topic change!"

**Frank managed a smile. "Yeah. You kind of are."**

**As they walked into the steam room, Frank thought of his grandmother, his mom, and his cursed childhood, thanks to Juno and her piece of firewood. He almost wished he could forget his past, the way Percy had.**

"As much as I'd like to get away from all of this pressure being a demigod," Jason started, "it kinda sucks losing all your memories." He frowned.

Annabeth frowned. Leo frowned. Piper frowned. Grover frowned. Thalia frowned. Chiron frowned. In fact, this made many people think about how fortunate they were that half of the camp frowned in concentration.

"Well, that's the end of the chapter," Clarisse sighed. "Chris, you wanna read next?"

"Sure," Chris replied.

Just as Clarisse was about to toss the book to Chris, he got up and walked over to her, took the book from her hands, and kissed his girlfriend on the cheek causing a rare blush to shade her cheeks.

Chris jogged back to his seat on the bench at the Hermes table and read, **Frank X**.


	12. Authors Note

**A/N- Hi, everybody. Sorry this isn't a chapter. I know I get frustrated when I see these Authors Notes; and I hate writing them, too. I just wanted to let you guys know that I'm **_**not **_**abandoning the story. I've just been really busy lately, and I'm going on vacation for a good part of the remainder of July. I'll try to post what I can though. Don't worry, I'm working on it right now. Thanks for all the reviews and favorites and follows, though! It keeps me motivated! That's all I have to say for now. Thanks. **


	13. Frank X

**A/N- Okay, just as promised. Here it goes!**

**Disclaimer- I own nothing.**

Chris jogged back to his seat on the bench at the Hermes table and read, **Frank X**.

**FRANK DIDN'T REMEMBER MUCH ABOUT the funeral itself. But he remembered the hours leading up to it—his grandmother coming out into the backyard to find him shooting arrows at her porcelain collection. **

"Poor guy," Piper sighed.

**His grandmother's house was a rambling gray stone mansion on twelve acres in North Vancouver. Her backyard ran straight into Lynn Canyon Park.**

**The morning was cold and drizzly, but Frank didn't feel the chill. He wore a black wool suit and a black overcoat that had once belonged to his grandfather. Frank had been startled and upset to find that they fit him fine. The clothes smelled like wet mothballs and jasmine. The fabric was itchy but warm. With his bow and quiver, he probably looked like a very dangerous butler.**

The Stolls began to snicker but then stopped remembering the reason Frank was wearing the suit in the first place.

**He'd loaded some of his grandmother's porcelain in a wagon and toted it into the yard, where he set up targets on old fence posts at the edge of the property. He'd been shooting so long, his fingers were starting to lose their feeling. With every arrow, he imagined he was striking down his problems.**

"At least he's letting his anger out," Thalia commented. "I should know from experience-it's not good to keep everything bottled up like that."

Almost every camper, Chiron included, turned to look at Thalia in astonishment.

"What?" she said.

Chiron just shook his head. "Your time with the Hunters is teaching you well."

Thalia gave her old teacher a cheeky grin.

**Snipers in Afghanistan. Smash. A teapot exploded with an arrow through the middle.**

**The sacrifice medal, a silver disk on a red-and-black ribbon, given for death in the line of duty, presented to Frank as if it were something important, something that made everything all right. Thwack. A teacup spun into the woods.**

**The officer who came to tell him: "Your mother is a hero. Captain Emily Zhang died trying to save her comrades."**

_**Crack**_**. A blue-and-white plate** **split into pieces.**

**His grandmother's chastisement: **_**Men do not cry. Especially**__**Zhang men. You will endure, Fai.**_

Rachel and Thalia, naturally being feminists since they would be single for all eternity, frowned. They didn't like to cry themselves, but it was different if you were crying over the death of a loved one. They also had a bone to pick with the line _'Men do not cry.' _ Everyone cries, men and women, and that was that.

**No one called him Fai except his grandmother. **_**What sort of name is Frank?**_** She would scold. **_**That is not a Chinese name.**_

**I'm not Chinese, Frank thought, but he didn't dare say that. His mother had told him years ago: There is no arguing with Grandmother. It'll only make you suffer worse. She'd been right. And now Frank had no one except his grandmother.**

_**Thud**_**. A fourth arrow hit the fence post and stuck there, quivering.**

**"Fai," said his grandmother.**

**Frank turned.**

**She was clutching a shoebox-sized mahogany chest that Frank had never seen before. With her high-collared black dress and severe bun of gray hair, she looked like a school teacher from the 1800s.**

**She surveyed the carnage: her porcelain in the wagon, the shards of her favorite tea sets scattered over the lawn, Frank's arrows sticking out of the ground, the trees, the fence posts, and one in the head of a smiling garden gnome.**

**Frank thought she would yell, or hit him with the box. He'd never done anything this bad before. He'd never felt so angry.**

"She'll understand. I'm sure, she lost her daughter," Annabeth sighed.

**Grandmother's face was full of bitterness and disapproval. She looked nothing like Frank's mom. He wondered how his mother had turned out to be so nice—always laughing, always gentle. Frank couldn't imagine his mom growing up with Grandmother any more than he could imagine her on the battlefield— though the two situations probably weren't that different.**

At this Annabeth frowned. She had been one to think bad of her family when she really shouldn't have. She hoped Frank didn't make the same mistake she did and sort out his problems before hand.

**He waited for Grandmother to explode. Maybe he'd be grounded and wouldn't have to go to the funeral. He wanted to hurt her for being so mean all the time, for letting his mother go off to war, for scolding him to get over it. All she cared about was her stupid collection.**

**"Stop this ridiculous behavior," Grandmother said. She didn't sound very irritated. "It is beneath you."**

**To Frank's astonishment, she kicked aside one of her favorites teacups.**

Annabeth nodded a little, knowing this behavior was expected.

**"The car will be here soon," she said. "We must talk."**

**Frank was dumbfounded. He looked more closely at the mahogany box. For a horrible moment, he wondered if it contained his mother's ashes, but that was impossible. Grandmother had told him there would be a military burial.**

The Stolls began to lean out of their seats, and Rachel whirled around to face them faster than lightning and demanded from them, "No comment." Their expressions looked deflated as they sat back down.

**Then why did Grandmother hold the box so gingerly, as if its contents grieved her?**

**"Come inside," she said. Without waiting to see if he would follow, she turned and marched toward the house.**

**In the parlor, Frank sat on a velvet sofa, surrounded by vintage family photos, porcelain vases that had been too large for his wagon, and red Chinese calligraphy banners. Frank didn't know what the calligraphy said. He'd never had much interest in learning. He didn't know most of the people in the photographs, either.**

**Whenever Grandmother started lecturing him about his ancestors—how they'd come over from China and prospered in the import/export business, eventually becoming one of the wealthiest Chinese families in Vancouver—well, it was boring. Frank was fourth-generation Canadian. He didn't care about China and all these musty antiques. The only Chinese characters he could recognize were his family name: Zhang.**_** Master of bows.**_** That was cool.**

**Grandmother sat next to him, her posture stiff, her hands folded over the box.**

**"Your mother wanted you to have this," she said with reluctance. "She kept it since you were a baby. When she went away to the war, she entrusted it to me. But now she is gone. And soon you will be going, too."**

**Frank's stomach fluttered. "Going? Where?"**

**"I am old," Grandmother said, as if that were a surprising announcement. "I have my own appointment with Death soon enough. I cannot teach you the skills you will need, and I cannot keep this burden. If something were to happen to it, I would never forgive myself. You would die."**

**Frank wasn't sure he'd heard her right. It sounded like she had said his life depended on that box. He wondered why he'd never seen it before. She must have kept it locked in the attic—the one room Frank was forbidden to explore. She'd always said she kept her most valuable treasures up there.**

**She handed the box to him. He opened the lid with trembling fingers. Inside, cushioned in velvet lining, was a terrifying, life altering, incredibly important…piece of wood.**

Jason, Leo, and Piper shared a confused look together, which, considering how they were all three seated at different tables, is hard to do. But they could clearly see that the others' expression read, _How could a piece of wood be so important?_

Annabeth, on the other hand, didn't question the importance of this particular piece of wood. It wasn't something mythology had taught her to be familiar with, but she's seen it all and she's sure she'll see much more in her lifetime.

**It looked like driftwood—hard and smooth, sculpted into a wavy shape. It was about the size of a TV remote control. The tip was charred. Frank touched the burned end. It still felt warm. The ashes left a black smudge on his finger.**

**"It's a stick," he said.**

"Pshhhhhhhhh, yay!" the Stolls laughed. Them and their stupid moments.

**He couldn't figure out why Grandmother was acting so tense and serious about it.**

**Her eyes glittered. "Fai, do you know of prophecies? Do you know of the gods?"**

**The questions made him uncomfortable. He thought about Grandmother's silly gold statues of Chinese immortals, (A/N Chinese immortals aren't silly!) her superstitions about putting furniture in certain places and avoiding unlucky numbers. (That too, sort off) Prophecies made him think of fortune cookies, which weren't even Chinese—not really—but the bullies at school teased him about stupid stuff like that: Confucius say(He's a great a teacher!) …all that garbage. Frank had never even been to China. He wanted nothing to do with it. But of course, Grandmother didn't want to hear that.**

**"A little, Grandmother," he said. "Not much."**

**"Most would have scoffed at your mother's tale," she said, "But I did not. I know of prophecies and gods. Greek, Roman, Chinese—they intertwine in our family. I did not question what she told me about your father."**

**"Wait ... what?"**

**"Your father was a god," she said plainly.**

Annabeth snickered. "Way to break it to him."

Thalia guffawed. "Like you didn't tell Percy the same thing."

Annabeth stared off as the memory hit her like a thousand bricks, like everything else that had to do with Percy felt to her these days.

_"I mean not human. Not totally human, anyway. Half-human."_

_"Half-human and half-what?"_

_"I think you know."_

_"God," Percy said. "Half-god."_

_Annabeth nodded. "Your father isn't dead, Percy. He's one of the Olympians."_

_"That's ... crazy."_

Annabeth's cheeks flushed. "Something like that," she said, ducking her head.

Everyone snickered.

**If Grandmother had had a sense of humor, Frank would have thought she was kidding. But Grandmother never teased. Was she going senile?**

**"Stop gaping at me!" she snapped. "My mind is not addled. Haven't you ever wondered why your father never came back?"**

**"He was…" Frank faltered. Losing his mother was painful enough. He didn't want to think about his father, too. "He was in the army, like Mom. He went missing in action. In Iraq."**

Will shook his head. _Always some story._

**"Bah. He was a god. He fell in love with your mother because she was a natural warrior. She was like me—strong, brave, good, beautiful."**

**Strong and brave, Frank could believe. Picturing Grandmother as good or beautiful was more difficult.**

The Aphrodite and Ares (minus Piper and Clarisse) kids laughed together, which was an unusual event all in itself.

**He still suspected she might be losing her marbles, but he asked, "What kind of god?"**

**"Roman," she said. "Beyond that, I don't know. Your mother wouldn't say, or perhaps she didn't know herself. It is no surprise a god would fall in love with her, given our family. He must have known she was of ancient blood."**

"Hmmm?" Annabeth tilted her head to Chiron. He merely raised his eyebrows in response.

**"Wait…we're Chinese. Why would Roman gods want to date Chinese Canadians?"**

**Grandmother's nostrils flared. "If you bothered to learn the family history, Fai, you might know this. China and Rome are not so different, nor as separate as you might believe. Our family is from Gansu Province, a town once called Li-Jien. **

_Legion, _Jason though to himself.

**And before that…as I said, ancient blood. The blood of princes and heroes."**

**Frank just stared at her.**

**She sighed in exasperation. "My words are wasted on this young ox! You will learn the truth when you go to camp. Perhaps your father will claim you. But for now, I must explain the firewood."**

**She pointed at the big stone fireplace. "Shortly after you were born, a visitor appeared at our hearth. Your mother and I sat here on the couch, just where you and I are sitting. You were a tiny thing, swaddled in a blue blanket, and she cradled you in her arms."**

**It sounded like a sweet memory, but Grandmother told it in a bitter tone, as if she knew, even then, that Frank would turn into a big lumbering oaf.**

**"A woman appeared at the fire," she continued. "She was a white woman—a gwai poh— dressed in blue silk, with a strange cloak like the skin of a goat."**

"Juno," Jason said, then translated, "err-Hera."

Annabeth nodded and Chrion swished his tail.

**"A goat," Frank said numbly.**

**Grandmother scowled. "Yes, clean your ears, Fai Zhang! I'm too old to tell every story twice! The woman with the goatskin was a goddess. I can always tell these things. She smiled at the baby—at you—and she told your mother, in perfect Mandarin, no less: 'He will close the circle. He will return your family to its roots and bring you great honor.'"**

**Grandmother snorted. "I do not argue with goddesses, but perhaps this one did not see the future clearly. Whatever the case, she said, 'He will go to camp and restore your reputation there. He will free Thanatos from his icy chains—'"**

"Who's that?" Leo asked.

"Chris looked back down at the book. "It'll explain," he said.

**"Wait, who?"**

**"Thanatos," Grandmother said impatiently. "The Greek name for Death. Now may I continue without interruptions? The goddess said, 'The blood of Pylos is strong in this child from his mother's side. **

"Pylos was one of the Argonauts on Jason's ship. The first Jason," Annabeth explained.

"I've never heard of a Roman child with a Greek bloodline like this. I wonder if he'll have the gift too…," Chiron trailed off talking to himself.

**He will have the Zhang family gift, **

_That answers my questions, _Chiron thought.

**but he will also have the powers of his father.'"**

**Suddenly Frank's family history didn't seem so boring. He desperately wanted to ask what it all meant—powers, gifts, blood of Pylos. What was this camp, and who was his father? But he didn't want to interrupt Grandmother again. He wanted her to keep talking.**

**"No power comes without a price, Fai," she said. "Before the goddess disappeared, she pointed at the fire and said, 'He will be the strongest of your clan, and the greatest. But the Fates have decreed he will also be the most vulnerable. His life will burn bright and short. As soon as that piece of tinder is consumed—that stick at the edge of the fire—your son is destined to die.'"**

"Oh," Chris interrupted himself. So that was the importance of the stick.

Leo let out a low whistle. "That's a suckish destiny.

Many nodded in agreement.

**Frank could hardly breathe. He looked at the box in his lap, and the smudge of ash on his finger. The story sounded ridiculous, but suddenly the piece of driftwood seemed more sinister, colder and heavier.**

**"This…this—"**

**"Yes, my thick-headed ox," Grandmother said. "That is the very stick. The goddess disappeared, and I snatched the wood from the fire immediately. We have kept it ever since."**

**"If it burns up, I die?"**

**"It is not so strange," Grandmother said. "Roman, Chinese—the destinies of men can often be predicted, and sometimes guarded against, at least for a time. The firewood is in your possession now. Keep it close. As long as it is safe, you are safe."**

"That's hard to do if you're a demigod," Piper pointed out. Demigods were never safe, so she wouldn't be so sure that Frank's possessions were going to be safe either.

**Frank shook his head. He wanted to protest that this was just a stupid legend. Maybe Grandmother was trying to scare him as some sort of revenge for breaking her porcelain.**

**But her eyes were defiant. She seemed to be challenging Frank: **_**If you do not believe it, burn it.**_

"That's terrible," Lacy said. Mitchel nodded gravely beside her.

**Frank closed the box. "If it's so dangerous, why not seal the wood in something that won't burn, like plastic or steel? Why not put it in a safe deposit box?"**

**"What would happen," Grandmother wondered, "if we coated the stick in another substance. Would you, too, suffocate? I do not know. Your mother would not take the risk. She couldn't bear to part with it, for fear something would go wrong. Banks can be robbed. Buildings can burn down. Strange things conspire when one tries to cheat fate. Your mother thought the stick was only safe in her possession, until she went to war. Then she gave it to me."**

**Grandmother exhaled sourly. "Emily was foolish, going to war, though I suppose I always knew it was her destiny. She hoped to meet your father again."**

The campers were silent.

"I suppose it could be Ares-Mars-his father I mean…" Annabeth voiced everyone's thoughts.

**"She thought…she thought he'd be in Afghanistan?"**

**Grandmother spread her hands, as if this was beyond her understanding. "She went. She died bravely. She thought the family gift would protect her. No doubt that's how she saved those soldiers. But the gift has never kept our family safe. It did not help my father, or his father. It did not help me. And now you have become a man. You must follow the path."**

**"But…what path? What's our gift—archery?"**

**"You and your archery! Foolish boy. Soon you will find out. Tonight, after the funeral, you must go south. Your mother said if she did not come back from combat, Lupa would send messengers. They will escort you to a place where the children of the gods can be trained for their destiny."**

**Frank felt as if he were being shot with arrows, his heart splitting into porcelain shards. He didn't understand most of what Grandmother said, but one thing was clear: she was kicking him out.**

**"You'd just let me go?" he asked. "Your last family?"**

**Grandmother's mouth quivered. Her eyes looked moist. Frank was shocked to realize she was near tears. She'd lost her husband years ago, then her daughter, and now she was about to send away her only grandson.**

**But she rose from the couch and stood tall, her posture as stiff and correct as ever.**

**"****When you arrive at camp," she instructed, "you must speak to the praetor in private. Tell her your great-grandfather was Shen Lun. It has been many years since the San Francisco incident. Hopefully they will not kill you for what he did, but you might want to beg forgiveness for his actions."**

"What did he do?" Leo asked.

Piper shrugged as a response.

**"This is sounding better and better," Frank mumbled.**

**"The goddess said you would bring our family full circle." Grandmother's voice had no trace of sympathy. "She chose your path years ago, and it will not be easy. But now it is time for the funeral. We have obligations. Come. The car will be waiting."**

**The ceremony was a blur: solemn faces, the patter of rain on the graveside awning, the crack of rifles from the honor guard, the casket sinking into the earth. **

**That night, the wolves came. They howled on the front porch. Frank came out to meet them. He took his travel pack, his warmest clothes, his bow and his quiver. His mother's sacrifice medal was tucked in his pack. The charred stick was wrapped carefully in three layers of cloth in his coat pocket, next to his heart.**

**His journey south began—to the Wolf House in Sonoma, and eventually to Camp Jupiter, where he spoke to Reyna privately as Grandmother had instructed. He begged forgiveness for the great-grandfather he knew nothing about. Reyna let him join the legion. She never did tell him what his great-grandfather had done, but she obviously knew. Frank could tell it was bad.**

**"****I judge people by their own merits," Reyna had told him.**

**"****But do not mention the name Shen Lun to anyone else. It must remain our secret, or you'll be treated badly."**

**Unfortunately, Frank didn't have many merits. His first month at camp was spent knocking over rows of weapons, breaking chariots, and tripping entire cohorts as they marched. His favorite job was caring for Hannibal the elephant, but he'd managed to mess that up, too—giving Hannibal indigestion by feeding him peanuts. Who knew elephants could be peanut-intolerant?**

"Wow," Grover mentioned. It was the first time he had said anything this whole chapter. There had been a serious aura in the air and all the emotions were too complex for even the Lord of the Wild to handle.

**Frank figured Reyna was regretting her decision to let him join.**

**Every day, he woke up wondering if the stick would somehow catch fire and burn, and he would cease to exist. All of this ran through Frank's head as he walked with Hazel and Percy to the war games. He thought about the stick wrapped inside his coat pocket, and what it meant that Juno had appeared at camp. Was he about to die? He hoped not. He hadn't brought his family any honor yet—that was for sure. Maybe Apollo would claim him today and explain his powers and gifts.**

"Nope," came the instant response from all the campers listening.

**Once they got out of camp, the Fifth Cohort formed two lines behind their centurions, Dakota and Gwen. They marched north, skirting the edge of the city, and headed to the Field of Mars—the largest, flattest part of the valley. The grass was cropped short by all the unicorns, bulls, and homeless fauns that grazed here. The earth was pitted with explosion craters and scarred with trenches from past games. At the north end of the field stood their target. The engineers had built a stone fortress with an iron portcullis, guard towers, scorpion ballistae, water cannons, and no doubt many other nasty surprises for the defenders to use.**

The Ares kids were silent for a moment. And then-

"THAT'S THE COOLEST THING I'VE EVER HEARD OF!"

"THEY USE THOSE THINGS TO PRACTICE?"

"WE HAVE TO GET ONE OF THOSE!"

"CHIRON, PLEAAASSSSEEEEE?"

"Oh my gods," Annabeth tried to get out over the noise. "A _book _ actually broke them. "

"Heroes!" Chiron called over the noise. He stomped his hoof twice.

The Ares kids stopped shouting.

"We'll discuss the matter of our equipment later. For now, on with the book. Chris, if you will please," he gestured for Chris to keep reading.

**"They did a good job today," Hazel noted. "That's bad for us."**

**"Wait," Percy said. "You're telling me that fortress was built **_**today?**_**"**

Annabeth's eyes went wide. _They're amazing architects._

**Hazel grinned. "Legionnaires are trained to build. If we had to, we could break down the entire camp and rebuild it somewhere else. Take maybe three or four days, but we could do it."**

"Wow." "Incredible." "Awesome."

"**Let's not," Percy said. "So you attack a different fort every night?"**

"**Not every night," Frank said. "We have different training exercises. Sometimes death ball—um, which is like paintball, except with…you know, poison and acid and fire balls. Sometimes we do chariots and gladiator competitions, sometimes war games."**

**Hazel pointed at the fort. "Somewhere inside, the First and Second Cohorts are keeping their banners. Our job is to get inside and capture them without getting slaughtered. We do that, we win."**

**Percy's eyes lit up. "Like capture-the flag. I think I like capture-the-flag."**

"Oh, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth half laughed, half sighed. "You have no idea."

"He usually doesn't ," Thalia remarked and they broke out laughing.

**Frank laughed. "Yeah, well…it's harder than it sounds. We have to get past those scorpions and water cannons on the walls, fight through the inside of the fortress, find the banners, and defeat the guards, all while protecting our own banners and troops from capture. And **_**our **_**cohort is in competition with the other two attacking cohorts. We sort of work together, but not really. The cohort that captures the banners gets all the glory."**

**Percy stumbled, trying to keep time with the left-right marching rhythm. Frank sympathized. He'd spent his first two weeks falling down.**

..**fortified cities?"**

"**Teamwork," Hazel said. "Quick thinking. Tactics. Battle skills. You'd be surprised what you can learn in the war games."**

"**Like who will stab you in the back," Frank said.**

"**Especially that," Hazel agreed.**

Annabeth grimaced along with many others.

**They marched to the center of the Field of Mars and formed ranks. The Third and Fourth Cohorts assembled as far as possible from the Fifth. The centurions for the attacking side gathered for a conference. In the sky above them, Reyna circled on her pegasus, Scipio, ready to play referee.**

**Half a dozen giant eagles flew in formation behind her—prepared for ambulance airlift duty if necessary. The only person not participating in the game was Nico Di Angelo, "Pluto's ambassador," who had climbed an observation tower about a hundred yards from the fort and would be watching with binoculars.**

_I still can't believe… I can't even begin to think about…, _Annabeth thought with mixed feelings.

**Frank propped his **_**pilum **_**against his shield and checked Percy's armor. Every strap was correct. Every piece of armor was properly adjusted.**

"After years of fixing it for him," Annabeth snorted.

Thalia laughed and Grover chuckled with his friends.

"**You did it right," he said in amazement. "Percy, you must've done war games before."**

"Yup, at Camp Half-Blood!"

"**I don't know. Maybe." The only thing that wasn't regulation was Percy's glowing bronze sword—not Imperial gold, and not a **_**gladius. **_

**The blade was leaf-shaped, and the writing on the hilt was Greek. **

**Looking at it made Frank uneasy. Percy frowned. "We **_**can**_** use real weapons, right?"**

**"Yeah," Frank agreed. "For sure. I've just never seen a sword like that."**

**"What if I hurt somebody?"**

"No dessert for a week," Clarisse said in a bitterly sarcastic voice, thinking of how his first fight against the Ares cabin in capture-the-flag had turned out.

"**We heal them," Frank said. "Or try to. The legion medics are pretty good with ambrosia and nectar, and unicorn draught."**

"**No one dies," Hazel said. "Well, not usually. And if they do—"**

**Frank imitated the voice of Vitellius: "They're wimps! Back in my day, we died all the time, and we liked it!"**

"Woah," said Leo. "I think something's wrong with Vitellius 'cuz I'm pretty sure most people like to live."

"He's always been like that," Jason rolled his eyes. "It's awful."

"You can say that again," Piper nodded laughing in shock.

**Hazel laughed. "Just stay with us, Percy. Chances are we'll get the worst duty and get eliminated early. They'll throw us at the walls first to soften up the defenses. Then the Third and Fourth Cohorts will march in and get the honors, **_**if **_**they can even breach the fort."**

**Horns blew. Dakota and Gwen walked back from the officers' conference, looking grim.**

"**All right, here's the plan!" Dakota took a quick swig of Kool-Aid from his travel flask. "They're throwing us at the walls first to soften up the defenses."**

"Isn't that just what Hazel said?"

"Yeah."

**The whole cohort groaned.**

"**I know, I know," Gwen said. "But maybe this time we'll have some luck!"**

**Leave it to Gwen to be the optimist. Everybody liked her because she took care of her people and tried to keep their spirits up. She could even control Dakota during his hyperactive bug-juice fits. Still, the campers grumbled and complained. Nobody believed in luck for the Fifth.**

"**First line with Dakota," Gwen said. "Lock shields and advance in turtle formation to the main gates. Try to stay in one piece. Draw their fire. Second line—"**

**Gwen turned to Frank's row without much enthusiasm. "You seventeen, from Bobby over, take charge of the elephant and the scaling ladders. Try a flanking attack on the western wall. Maybe we can spread the defenders too thin. Frank, Hazel, Percy…well, just do whatever.**

Annabeth looked at Thalia with her eyebrows raised.

Thalia leaned back in her seat, "Alright, this should be fun."

Annabeth put her head down on the Athena table and laughed silently, hard enough to actually send vibrations through the old wooden benches.

**Show Percy the ropes. Try to keep him alive."**

Annabeth let out a small squeak.

**She turned back to the whole cohort. "If anybody gets over the wall first, I'll make sure you get the Mural Crown. Victory for the Fifth!"**

**The cohort cheered half heartedly and broke ranks.**

**Percy frowned. "'Do whatever?'"**

"**Yeah," Hazel sighed. "Big vote of confidence."**

"**What's the Mural Crown?" he asked.**

"**Military medal," Frank said. He'd been forced to memorize all the possible awards. "Big honor for the first soldier to breach an enemy fort. You'll notice nobody in the Fifth is wearing one. Usually we don't even get into the fort because we're burning or drowning or…"**

**He faltered, and looked at Percy. "Water cannons."**

"Ahhh okay I see your strategy. Good idea," Malcom said praisingly.

"**What?" Percy asked.**

"**The cannons on the walls," Frank said, "they draw water from the aqueduct. There's a pump system—heck, I don't know how they work, but they're under a lot of pressure. If you could control them, like you controlled the river—"**

"**Frank!" Hazel beamed. "That's brilliant!"**

**Percy didn't look so sure. "I don't know how I did that at the river. I'm not sure I can control the cannons from this far away."**

"**We'll get you closer." Frank pointed to the eastern wall of the fort, where the Fifth Cohort wouldn't be attacking. "That's where the defense will be weakest. They'll never take three kids seriously. I think we can sneak up pretty close before they see us."**

"**Sneak up how?" Percy asked.**

**Frank turned to Hazel. "Can you do that thing again?"**

"Huh?"

**She punched him in the chest. "You said you wouldn't tell anybody!"**

**Immediately Frank felt terrible. He'd gotten so caught up in the idea... **

**Hazel muttered under her breath. "Never mind. It's fine. Percy, he's talking about the trenches. The Field of Mars is riddled with tunnels from over the years. Some are collapsed, or buried deep, but a lot of them are still passable. I'm pretty good at finding them and using them. I can even collapse them if I have to."**

"That's so awesome!" Leo exclaimed like a child. "You know how many times we could use that to sneak up on our enemies and just be like 'BLERRGHH!' and they would be all 'AHHH DON'T HURT ME!' and then-"

"Can we go back to the story please?" Piper pleaded from Chris before Leo could get too in depth with his idea of a sneak attack.

"**Like you did with the gorgons," Percy said, "to slow them down."**

**Frank nodded approvingly. "I told you Pluto was cool. He's the god of everything under the earth. Hazel can find caves, tunnels, trapdoors—"**

"**And it was **_**our **_**secret," she grumbled.**

**Frank felt himself blushing. "Yeah, sorry. But if we can get close—"**

"**And if I can knock out the water cannons…" Percy nodded, like he was warming to the idea. "What do we do then?"**

**Frank checked his quiver. He always stocked up on special arrows. He'd never gotten to use them before, but maybe tonight was the night. Maybe he could finally do something good enough to get Apollo's attention.**

"Wrong god, kid," Will shook his head.

"**The rest is up to me," he said. "Let's go."**

"That's it," Chris said. He was about to ask who wanted to read the next chapter when the nymphs came out from the trees with trays of sandwiches and French fries.

Chiron noticed also and said, "We will continue at the campfire tonight, then. Enjoy your lunch." Then he proceeded to take the book from Chris and tuck it under his arm. He left to check on the Big House after taking a peanut butter and jelly sandwich from a green haired nymph.

Just before Annabeth had her first bite out of her sandwich, Grover stopped at the Athena table and asked, "If you still want to try to reach Percy, we can test out the empathy link in the Big House after lunch. Chiron gave me permission."

Annabeth visibly brightened up. "Absolutely. Can Thalia come, too? She wanted to try to get word out to Artemis about Apollo's book and the Argo II."

"Sure," Grover said. "Meet me and Jason, Piper, and Leo at the big house at one thirty. I asked them to come too. I think they should be there for this-if I can even get connected with Percy, that is considering how well Hera suppressed it."

She nodded in agreement. "Okay, Grover, that sounds like a good idea. Thanks."

"No problem. See you then," he said and when he saw Juniper his eyes lit up and he went to go join her.

**A/N-Okay. I'm not going to do a chapter working on the empathy link. There are others out there focusing on that, and I just wanna focus on the campers reading Percy's story so we can fit it all in the timespan that follows with the books. So, I'll just pick up at the scene at the campfire and show their reactions to their success. Welcome. ;) See you later! Thanks for all the views and favorites!**


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